In the context of recent Rajasthan’s Jalore incident where a nine-year-old boy Indra Meghwal was allegedly beaten to death by a teacher, a video of a small boy dancing to a Rajasthani song is being widely shared on social media claiming that the boy int he video is this nine-year-old Indra Meghwal. Let’s verify the claim made in the post.
Claim: Old dancing video of nine-year-old boy Indra Meghwal who was allegedly beaten to death by a teacher.
Fact: The boy dancing in the video is Harish Bheel, a class-II student at Government Upper Primary school, Gomrakh dham, chohtan block, Barmer district, Rajasthan. He is not Indra Meghwal who was allegedly beaten to death by a teacher. Hence the claim made in the post is MISLEADING
Firstly, we compared the images of the Indra Meghwal with that of boy dancing in the viral video and found that both images are different.
Then, we divided the video into keyframes and conducted the reverse image search. We found an old video on YouTube uploaded by “Jeevraj CTN Barmer” on 04 August 2022. We also identified the song playing in background as a Rajasthani folk song.
Taking the cue from this, we searched with the relevant keywords and found a video on Facebook posted by GUPS Gomrakh dham Taratra, Chohtan, Barmer on 30 July 2022 which says , “No bag day ke दिनकक्षा2 केविद्यार्थीहरीशद्वाराआत्मविश्वाससेभरपूरशानदारप्रस्तुति”. (English translation: On No bag day, a brilliant and confident performance by class 2 student Harish). The viral video is a trimmed version of this video.
The Facebook profile belongs to Government Upper Primary School, Gomrakh dham, Tar Chohtan village, Barmer district, Rajasthan. We further investigated the profile and found the Facebook profiles of the teachers working in the school. Kailash Bhati M, a teacher in the same school, clarified “Brother this is not Indra Kumar Meghwal. This child Harish Bhil is a student at Higher Primary School Gomarkh Dham (Barmer). Please do not share wrong video”
Upon further investigation, we found that India Today contacted the headmaster of the GUPS Gomrakh dham, Chohtan. He clarified that the boy dancing in the video is Harish Bheel, a class II student at Government Upper primary school, Gomrakh dham, chohtan. Indra Meghwal’s father Devaram Meghwal also confirmed to India Today that the boy dancing in the video was not his son.
We found the student details of Harish Bheel from Rajasthan Government’s Jansoochna Portal.
Taking the cue from this, we searched for the contact details of the family in Food department website and found the details & contact number of his father Punja Ram. But at this moment, his number is unreachable. We will update this article when we get the required information.
To sum it up, the boy dancing in the video is not Indra Meghwal, the nine-year-old boy who was allegedly beaten to death by a teacher.
