A video showing a man filling a glass of water and spitting into it is widely circulated on social media platforms. The video is shared with a claim suggesting that it depicts a recent incident, that the accused man is Muslim and that the water is intended to be served to a judge in the Aligarh court. (here & here). In this article, we fact-check the claim made in the post.
Claim: Video depicting a recent incident of a Muslim man spitting in water intended for a Judge in Aligarh Court
Fact: The video depicts an incident that occurred in an Aligarh court back in 2018. According to reports, the man in the video was identified as Vikas Gupta, a fourth-class employee. He was immediately suspended, and an inquiry was ordered. Hence, the claim made in the post is FALSE.
A Google search using relevant keywords led us to multiple news articles that reported the same visuals back in 2018. According to these reports, the incident occurred in a court in Aligarh, where a video revealed a peon serving water to a woman civil judge after spitting in the glass.
The reports identified the individual as Vikas Gupta, a fourth-class employee, and stated that the incident occurred on 22 May 2018. Gupta was immediately suspended, and Aligarh’s district and sessions judge ordered an inquiry into the incident.
As reported by this article, ‘the president of the class IV employees’ union, Uma Shankar Yadav admitted that this act was absolutely “wrong” and “unacceptable”. He said he got to know that Gupta’s mental state was not all right, as he had been harassed over the last two months.’
Several other news reports identifying the man as Vikas Gupta and confirming that the incident occurred in 2018 can be viewed here, here, and here. Recently, when a Twitter user shared the same video, the Aligarh police responded to the tweet, stating that it was an old video and that appropriate action had been taken against the accused person.
To sum up, an old video of a peon spitting in a glass of water in a UP court resurfaces with a communal claim
