By Anmol Alphonso
Hindi news outlet Zee Uttar Pradesh Uttarakhand misreported a prank video where a man is pouring liquid from a bottle into a container filled with a popular sweet gulab jamun as a true incident of a person publicly urinating into sweets at a wedding.
In the viral video, a man has his back to the camera and the camera zooms into a liquid being spurted into a vessel filled with gulab jamun. The liquid is being poured from a bottle placed near the groin area of the man making it look like he is peeing into the vessel.
The same edited prank video is also being shared on Twitter with a false and communal claim that it is a real incident of public urination by someone from the Muslim community.
The video was misreported by Zee Uttar Pradesh Uttarakhand on December 3, 2022, with the headline when translated reads, "Viral Video: The man did something like this in the food being prepared for the wedding, you will be disgusted to see"
The caption of the article when translated reads, "Man Urinated in Gulab Jamun: After the videos of spitting vegetables, roti and Golgappa water in all these went viral, now such a video is going viral on social media, after which you may be disgusted by the food at weddings. In this video, see how a man is urinating in Gulab Jamun prepared for the guests at a wedding. After watching this video, the anger of the people has flared up and they are demanding action against this person."
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Zee Uttar Pradesh Uttarakhand had also tweeted the article with the false claim.
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Zee Uttar Pradesh Uttarakhand credits the viral video to Twitter, however, it does not mention any details about where the incident took place or that it is from a longer prank video. The part where the man can be seen holding a bottle has been edited out of the viral video which takes away the context.
The same edited video was being shared on Twitter with the false and communal claim with insinuations that it shows a Muslim man urinating in it and claims it shows 'Food jihad'.
Dr. Richa Rajpoot, Social Media head for the UP BJP Youth Wing tweeted the video with the caption which translates to, "What is the name of this #Jihad after food jihad?"
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FACT-CHECK
BOOM found that the viral video is not an actual incident of public urination but from a longer adult prank video that is being misreported with the false claim that a man urinated inside a container filled with gulab jamun. In the original video, we can later see that the man is holding a bottle and pouring liquid from it which has been edited out.
Taking a hint from the tweet replies to the viral video pointing out that it is clipped from a prank video, we looked at the longer video on Instagram and found that it was uploaded on November 29, 2022, by the handle @ashiq.billota.
The handle puts out memes and videos with adult content and pranks that have sexualized references and imagery.
The part where the man can be seen clearly holding the bottle has been edited out in the viral video to make the false claim. The caption of the post says, "...I request my followers if you know owner of this video please mention him so i add credits."
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Additionally, the Instagram handle @ashiq.billota tagged another meme page @funtaap in its post, which also puts out similar adult prank content filled with sexual references and imagery.
In another similar prank video posted on July 23, 2022, @funtaap, a young boy can be seen swimming in a pool, and another young boy is seen standing over him from the camera angle which appears that he is urinating over him. But he is actually holding a water pump installed at the swimming pool which is revealed at the last moment just like in the viral video.
This indicates that it is an adult prank video and not a public urination video.
BOOM was unable to independently verify the location of the incident in the viral video, however, we were able to establish that it is from a longer video that does not show public urination as being claimed and misreported.
