A scripted video is shared as a real incident of a news reporter disciplining a District magistrate for not following rules in the Kumbh Mela
A video (here, here, and here) viral on social media allegedly shows a news reporter slapping a District magistrate (DM) in Maha Kumbh Mela for not following rules and entering the mela in his car. In the video, we can see the reporter asking the car driver how they can enter the mela in their car when there is no space for people to walk. This argument escalates, and he slaps the so-called DM on the face. We fact-check this claim through this article.
Claim: Video of a news reporter slapping a District Magistrate (DM) for not following the rules at Maha Kumbh Mela.
Fact: This is a scripted video made by a YouTuber named Harsh Rajput. Hence, the claim made in the post is False.
To check the veracity of the viral claim, we performed a reverse image search on the internet leading us to the original full-length version of the viral video. The video titled ‘MAHAKUMBH | HARSH RAJPUT’ was uploaded on a verified YouTube channel named ‘Harsh Rajput’ on 12 February 2025.
The visuals in this video at 4:18 match with the viral video. However, the person seen holding the microphone in this video is not a real reporter, and this video does not depict a real event. This entire episode was scripted, and it’s just a sketch made for entertainment purposes. This information was given via a disclaimer at the beginning of the video at 0:04 seconds.
Harsh Rajput is a social media content creator who uploads scripted videos on his YouTube channel, where he pretends to be a news reporter investigating and exposing various issues. You can find many such videos on his YouTube channel.
In the past, one of his scripted videos went viral as a real video of a news reporter exposing fake teachers at a school. We debunked it and published a fact-check article, which you can find here.
To sum up, a scripted video is shared as a real incident of a news reporter disciplining a District magistrate for not following rules in Kumbh Mela.