A viral video on social media is being shared with a claim that it shows a Hindu father pleading and trying to convince his daughter against marrying a Muslim man, thus insinuating that it a matter of ‘Love Jihad’.
We at The Quint tracked down the location where the video was recorded and found that contrary to the claims, the couple — identified as Lakharam and Sita — belong to the same community (Dewasi) and the video shows Sita’s parents trying to convince her against marrying Lakharam.
CLAIM
The aforementioned video is being massively shared on Facebook and Twitter with the same misleading claim. Among those who shared the video is right-wing commentator Shefali Vaidya.
Sharing the video on Facebook, Vaidya wrote: “This video broke my heart! If the info that I have is correct, this is a Hindu father begging his daughter to not fall prey to Love Jihad. He even lays down his Pagadi at her feet. Only those who are well-versed with Rajasthani tradition will understand the magnitude of this. See how callously the girl smiles and brushes him off! She will probably end up as a third wife bearing her fifth child in as many years or will end up being beheaded like the woman from Sonbhadra, but by then the old man would have probably died of a broken heart!”
She also added a disclaimer saying that she has been informed about the case by “organisations working on the ground”.
The video is also viral with a claim in Hindi which reads: “पता नहीं कहां का वीडियो है.. राजस्थान का बताया रहे हैं... मुस्लिम युवक से शादी ना करने के लिए पिता अपनी बेटी के पैर में अपनी पगड़ी रख रहा है और बेटी फिर भी मानने को तैयार नहीं है.”
[Translation: I don’t know where is this video from, but some people are saying that it is from Rajasthan. The father is pleading his daughter to not marry a Muslim man and yet the daughter is not ready to listen to him.]
A tweet by Renee Lynn which carried the video had over 3,600 likes and 1,900 retweets at the time of filing this report.
WHAT WE FOUND
We went through the comments section of these posts and found that several people had identified the location of the incident as Rajasthan. Most of them pointed out that the video is either from Pali or from Sirohi district in the state.
One such video, uploaded by a Facebook page Royal Raika mentioned that the video is being shared on social media with a false claim and the girl in the video is Sita and the man is Lakharam.
We reached out the cops in both the districts and found that the incident took place in Pali last month.
Speaking to The Quint the Additional Superintendent of Police in Pali district, Brijesh Kumar Soni said, “The incident took place last in Pali. However, the claim of this being a case of Love Jihad is absolutely false. The woman and the man both belong to the same community.”
He further told us that the woman who can be seen in the video is Sita who was already married when she eloped with this man called Lakharam who can also be seen in the video. Her parents here are trying to convince her to return home.
We were also able to access Sita’s statement to the Police where she has mentioned that she wilfully eloped with Lakharam on 28 August. She also mentioned she would from hereon want to live with Lakharam and not return home to her parents.
Fact-checking website Alt News reached out to the couple and heard back from Lakharam who told them they belong to the same caste and have been married for over a month now.
“This video has gone viral with a completely false claim. When we were getting married in court, Sita’s father was just joking around with her not to get married. And someone made this clip viral in a different context. People are also saying that the woman’s father committed suicide. This is wrong. Everything is fine.”Lakharam to Alt News
Clearly, the video is being circulated on social media with several false claims.
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