A scripted video showing a group of men confront a girl dressed in school uniform and a youth along with her is viral on social media with false communal captions linking the incident to a case of love jihad.
BOOM found that the video is a scripted act and is meant for 'awareness purpose' as stated in a disclaimer in the clip.
In recent times, BOOM has debunked several scripted videos that have been passed off with unrelated communal claims on social media. Although content creators upload these videos with disclaimers that state these are for 'educational purposes' yet these clips are prone to abuse as they are later cropped and shared with captions targeting the minority.
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The 5.13-minute-long clip shows a group of men holding a man by his collar while someone records the incident on a mobile phone and stops the later from 'escaping with a. The men can be seen interrogating a girl dressed in school uniform. Later, a woman who calls herself the school principal comes on camera and asks the men to stop shooting the incident on their mobile phones.
The woman apologises to the men and tells them to come inside the school and talk about the whole issue.
The viral video was shared on a Facebook post with a Hindi caption translating to 'Watch how these Muslim men lure juvenile Hindu girls in the name of love jihad'.
(Hindi: लव जेहाद में नाबालिक हिन्दू लड़कियों को कैसे अकबर बाबर के हरम की ये नाजायज औलादे फँसाते है ये वीडियो देखो और सबको भेजो )
View the post here.
Click here to view another post sharing the video with same claim.
Fact Check
BOOM has debunked similar videos on earlier occasion too. We have found that they are mostly made with a claim of creating awareness on various issues. Therefore, captions accompanying them often bear a similar tone. Taking cue, we did a search on Facebook with Hindi keywords 'माँ बाप ध्यान रखे' and found a slightly longer version of the same video uploaded on Facebook page of Deepika Shah on November 27, 2021.
(English: Parents, be careful)
Shah's page calls her a public figure.
The Hindi caption with this 5.38-minute-long video translates to 'Watch where this girl goes in the guise of going to school. Parents, please be careful'. The video has 12 million views.
(Hindi: स्कूल के नाम पे ये लड़की देखें कहाँ चली जाती हैं , माँ -बाप ध्यान जरूर रखें)
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In this longer version of the viral video, at the timestamp of 5.36 minutes, one can clearly see a disclaimer which reads 'This video is fictional work and meant for awareness purpose. And all characters are fictitious. Any harm cause to any person through this video is purely coincidental' (sic).
BOOM checked the profile of Deepika Shah and found several such scripted videos. Another similar scripted video shared on Shah's Facebook page on December 18 has the same character seen dressed in a school uniform in the viral video.
Click here to view the video.
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BOOM has reached out to the Facebook page and the report will be updated if we hear from them.