A staged and scripted video which shows a man lacing a woman's drink in a restaurant and an alert staffer who foils the man's plan, is going viral on Facebook with a false communal claim targeting Muslims.
BOOM found that the video, which is deliberately edited to look like CCTV footage, is actually a scripted drama and was created by a Facebook page for 'educational purposes'.
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The viral footage shows a man and woman enter a restaurant and take a seat. A few minutes later the woman leaves the table and the man takes the opportunity to lace her cold drink with something. The woman staff sitting at the reception counter sees this and makes a phone call. She also says something to the waiter serving the table who then, purposely spills the girl's soft drink, and removes it from the table.
Shortly afterward, a policeman enters the restaurant and starts questioning the man. The cop finds a vial filled with powder from the man's pocket. The video ends in the man being taken away by the cop while the woman is being consoled by a staffer.
However, the video is being shared with a communal claim.
A Hindi caption with a Facebook post sharing the video translates to 'Look at the deeds of this Muslim boy. He mixes drugs in his girlfriend's water with a plan to rape her later. However, an alert hotel staff sees this and he was caught. If you don't become alert even now then none of the powers in this world can save you because even after watching this you will say why should we be worried, it hasn't happened to us'.
(Hindi: यह देखिये इस मुस्लिम लड़के की करतुत..अपने हिन्दु लड़की दोस्त को पानी में नशे की दवा खिलाकर इज्जत लुटने का प्लान बना रहा था..,पर होटल वालों के जागरूकता से पकड़ा गया ये कृत्य देखने के पश्चात भी यदि आप जागरूक नही होते तो ईश्वर क्या संसार की कोई भी शक्ति आपकी रक्षा नही कर सकती कारण केवल इतना है की ये सब देखने के पश्चात भी आप यही बोलेंगे अरे हमारे यह थोड़े हुआ है हमें क्यों लेनी tansion "समाप्त"।)
View the viral post here.
The video is viral from multiple Facebook pages with similar claims.
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Fact Check
BOOM did a reverse image search on one of the keyframes of the video and found a longer version of the same video shared from the verified Facebook page of Hamsa Nandini. The page has over 2.9 million followers and has shared several similar scripted CCTV footage-like videos.
We found a longer version of the now viral video shared from the Facebook page on October 18, 2020 with a caption reading 'YOU COULD BE THE NEXT ! Thank you for watching! Please be aware that this page features scripted dramas and parodies as well. These short films are for educational purposes only! Thank you for watching! Please be aware that this page features scripted dramas and parodies as well. These short films are for educational purposes only!'.
In the end of the video we can see a message reading 'Don't trust anyone blindly... Thank you for watching! Please be aware that this page features scripted dramas and parodies as well. These short films are for educational purposes only!'
The Facebook page has several similar scripted videos.
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We also found another video shared on the same Facebook page which shows the same restaurant but with different actors in the video.
BOOM reached out to Hamsa Nandini. We will update the story if we get a response.