Does This Video Show ‘Mohammad Idrish’ Dressed as a Hindu Guru Eating Meat? No!

The video shows a Nepali artist named Mahesh Upreti who makes skits and dance videos.

A video by a Nepali content creator has gone viral with the false claim that it shows one Mohammad Idrish who was arrested after he made a video of himself eating meat during Navratri.

(Source: X/Altered by The Quint)

A video of a man wearing a sacred thread and saffron clothes while eating meat is being shared on social media amid the auspicious Hindu festival of Navratri.

The claim: The video is being shared to claim that it shows one Mohammad Idrish, who was arrested after he pretended to be a Hindu guru and shared a video of him eating meat during Navratri to "insult' Hindu faith.

An archived version of this post can be seen here.

(Source: X (formerly Twitter)/Screenshot)

(Archived versions of more posts sharing this claim can be seen here and here.)

Is it true?: No, the video is a staged one created by Nepali "artist" Mahesh Upreti, making the claim false.

• Additionally, there are no credible reports about a person named Mohammad Idrish doing such a thing.

How do we know?: We carried out a reverse image seach using Google Lens, which showed us several results from TikTok.

• Since the platform is banned in India, we used VPN to access these results.

• One of the search results showed us the same video, but this one carried the username '@maheshupreti3'.

The video carried an account's name.

(Source: TikTok/Altered by The Quint)

• Taking a cue from this, we looked for the account on TikTok and found it.

• The account's bio mentioned that Upreti is an "Artist/Singer."

The account's bio said that Upreti is an artist.

(Source: TikTok/Altered by The Quint)

• We went through Upreti's profile, but did not find this video there, which could mean that it was taken down.

• However, we saw that he regularly posts scripted and stage videos, along with dance videos on his account.

• Comparing the viral video to one dancing video, we were able to clearly establish that the person in the video was Mahesh Upreti.

The person in the viral video is Mahesh Upreti.

(Source: X/TikTok/Altered by The Quint)

• Upreti shares dance videos on his YouTube channel as well.

• We looked for his profile on Facebook, which mentioned that he is from Dharan, Nepal.

Upreti is from Nepal.

(Source: Facebook/Screenshot)

Lastly, a keyword search using 'Mohammad Idrish' did not yield any credible reports about anyone by that name being arrested recently.

Conclusion: A staged video by a Nepali artist is being shared to falsely claim it shows a man named Mohammad Idrish pretending to be a Hindu guru.

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