Old video of a man urinating in a temple revived with a false communal narrative - FACTLY
Sai Krishna Muthyanolla
March 22, 2021
A post accompanying the video of a man urinating on a Shiva lingam is being shared on social media platforms giving the incident a communal colour by claiming that the boy belongs to the Muslim community. Through this article let’s fact-check the claim made in the post.
Claim: Video of a Muslim boy urinating on Shiva Lingam.
Fact: The video actually shows an old incident of a miscreant urinating in a temple in Vishakapatnam’s Pisinikada village back in 2018. Multiple regional news agencies reported the incident. These reports identified the miscreants as Ramesh and Anand, both belong to the Christian community, FIR has been registered against them. Hence the claim made in the post is FALSE.
YouTube search with relevant keywords led us to a 2018 Telugu regional news channel video report which reported the same video in the post. According to this report, the incident took place in Vishakapatnam’s Pisinikada village where a couple of miscreants urinated on Shiva Lingam. Further as per the report, Police have filed a case and investigating it.
Another news report which reported the incident can be seen here. As per this report, the miscreants were identified as Ramesh and Anand from Krishnapuram village of Anakapelli Mandal, and that an FIR has been filed against these two. Going by the general convention, both these names do not represent a person from the Muslim community.
Altnews, a fact-checking organisation accessed the FIR copy related to the incident. Even the FIR named the culprits as Ramesh and Anand. Also, as per Anakapalli rural police sub-inspector, both the accused confessed that they belong to the Christian community.
In view of the recent incident of a Muslim boy being allegedly beaten for entering a temple to drink water, misleading posts like these are being shared on social media platforms.
To sum it up, old video of a man urinating in a temple is revived with a false communal narrative.