A viral video on social media is being shared with a claim that a popcorn vendor in Bengaluru was caught selling popcorn with urine instead of salt to add salt-like flavour. We verify this claim through this fact-check article.
Claim: A Muslim popcorn vendor in Bengaluru was caught selling popcorn made using his urine to add salt-like flavour.
Fact: Bengaluru police arrested a popcorn vendor named Nawaz Pasha in June 2022 for allegedly spitting in cooking oil used to make popcorn. After investigation, it was confirmed that he did not spit in the oil, and was later released on bail. The viral post wrongly claims the reason for his arrest was for making popcorn using urine instead of salt. Hence, the claim made in the post is False.
We did a keyword search online to learn more details about the viral video. This search yielded several news articles from June 2022 that reported on this video (here, here, and here).
Reportedly, some people have accused Nawaz Pasha, a popcorn vendor at a stall in Bengaluru’s Lalbagh Botanical Garden, of spitting in cooking oil (not using Urine to make popcorn, as the post claims).
Later, the police took Nawaz into custody (FIR copy) and seized a bottle of oil kept for preparing popcorn and also his popcorn machine.
However, giving his side of the story on the matter, Nawaz refuted these allegations. He said that he tore the oil packet to pour the oil into the bottle and put the torn piece of the packet in his mouth.
After an investigation, it was confirmed that he did not spit, and the police released him on bail. The bottle in the viral video did not contain urine, as claimed, but oil.
To sum up, this popcorn vendor was arrested on suspicion that he spit in cooking oil, not for adding urine to the popcorn.
