This electrocution incident during the Ram Navami procession did not occur in front of a mosque - FACTLY
Sai Krishna Muthyanolla
April 6, 2023
A video showing a group of people being electrocuted by a high-tension wire has been circulating on social media. The post claims that the individuals were part of a group dancing to loud music in front of a mosque during a Sri Ramanavami procession and insinuates that the incident was divine punishment for their disrespectful behaviour. Let’s verify the claim made in the post.
Claim: A group of people getting electrocuted during Sri Ramanavami Procession for dancing in front of a Mosque.
Fact: The incident occurred in Kotradeep Singh Village in Rajasthan, where three people were electrocuted while attempting to retrieve a ring that had become entangled in a high-tension wire. However, according to the former sarpanch and the husband of the current sarpanch, there is no mosque in their village. A video captured from another angle does not show any mosque, and a review of Google Maps confirms that there is no mosque in the village. Hence the claim made in the post is FALSE.
According to the media reports (here and here), three men tragically lost their lives due to electrocution while performing stunts during a Ram Navami celebration in Kotra deep/Kodta deep Singh village of Kota district of Rajasthan on 30 March 2023. The incident occurred when seven individuals formed a human pyramid to retrieve a steel ring that was stuck in an overhead high-tension cable. As they attempted to remove the ring, the group received an electric shock. The victims have been identified as Abhishek, 24, Mahendra Yadav, 40, and Lalit Prajapat, 25, all residents of Baroda village. Four other individuals—Amit Mehar, 19, Himanshu, 21, Radhayshyam Mehra, 24, and Palendra Prajapat, 23—also suffered electrocution but survived.
The injured were immediately taken to the Community Health Centre in Sultanpur, where three of them were declared dead upon arrival. The remaining injured, with the exception of Prajapat, were later transferred to MBS Hospital in Kota for further treatment. Deputy Superintendent of Police Gajendra Singh stated that the power line involved in the incident was rubber-coated, but the steel ring somehow managed to come into contact with a live part of the cable. However, after examining the available media reports, there is no mention of the incident occurring in front of a mosque, as claimed in the social media post. Upon searching YouTube using relevant keywords, we found a video that captured the accident from a different angle. The footage does not reveal any indication of a mosque being present at the location of the incident. We contacted the uploader of the video, Lalit, who confirmed that the incident occurred near the house of the village’s former sarpanch Lokendraji and not in front of any mosque, as claimed in the social media post.
We subsequently contacted the current Sarpanch Santosh Bai and former Sarpanch Lokendraji of the village to verify the information. Both Lokendraji and Ramesh, the husband of Sarpanch Santosh Bai, confirmed that there is no mosque in their village, and the incident indeed took place near Lokendraji’s home. Additionally, a review of the village on Google Maps does not reveal the presence of any mosque within the area.
To sum it up, the incident in which three people were electrocuted during Ram Navami celebrations in Rajasthan did not take place in front of a mosque.