Update (26 September 2022):
Another video is being shared on social media claiming it as visuals of kidnappers abducting a school going girl from a bus stop in broad daylight. Let’s verify the claim made in the post.
Claim: Video of Kidnappers abducting a school going girl from a bus stop.
Fact: The video shared in the post is a scripted one. The video was created by Naveen Jangra, a YouTuber who creates scripted and prank videos. The video was made for entertainment and awareness purposes. The video does not show a recent incident. Hence, the claim made in the post is FALSE.
On reverse image search of the screenshots of the video, an extended version of the video was found published by a digital creator named Dayashankar Yadav on 27 July 2022. When a user in the comment section doubted it as a scripted video, this Facebook user acknowledged it as a scripted video created for educational and awareness purposes. On observing the extended video carefully, we could find that the person thrashing kidnappers towards the end of the video is Naveen Jangra, a YouTuber who publishes scripted and prank videos on his YouTube and other social media handles.
In a few other scripted videos published on Naveen Jangra YouTube channel, Naveen Jangra was seen on the same yellow t-shirt as seen in the viral video. The video shared in the post is now not available on Naveen Jangra’s Facebook or other social media handles. But a disclaimer provided on a few of his scripted videos clearly stated that the videos on his channel are created for entertainment and educational purposes. A few similar scripted videos published by Naveen Jangra can be seen here and here. From all these pieces of evidence, it can be confirmed that the video shared in the post is scripted.
Update (19 September 2022):
Video 1:
A video is being shared on social media claiming it as visuals of a child kidnapper being brutally assaulted by the public in Amethi, Uttar Pradesh. Let’s verify the claim made in the post.
Claim: Video of a child kidnapper being brutally assaulted by the public in Amethi.
Fact: The video shared in the post shows an old incident from 2019 of a mob attacking labourers on suspicion of being child kidnappers in Amethi, UP. Amethi Police through a tweet confirmed that the injured victims are labourers brought for electricity works in the district. Hence, the claim made in the post is FALSE.
On reverse image search of the screenshots of the video, a video with similar visuals was found IN ‘Zee Uttar Pradesh Uttarakhand’ news channel report published on 02 September 2019. It is reported that a mob attacked 9 innocent labourers on a suspicion of child theft in Amethi, UP. Reporting the same, several news websites published articles in September 2019. Amethi police through a tweet clarified that the victims are innocent labourers brought for electricity work in the village. So, it can be confirmed that the video is old and the victim assaulted by the public is not a child kidnapper.
Video 2:
Another video is being shared on social media claiming it as recent visuals of kidnapped children who were left dead after transplanting kidneys and other organs from their bodies. Let’s verify the claim made in the post.
Claim: Recent video showing dead bodies of kidnapped children.
Fact: A politician from the Nagore district in Rajasthan shared the images showing similar visuals in July 2022, and stated it as pictures of four children who succumbed after drowning in the garbage pits made by the Nagore Municipal Corporation in Nagore. Medical practitioners informed that the Y-shaped central incisions visible on the children’s bodies would be made for postmortem, not for the kidney transplantations as claimed in the post. Hence, the claim made in the post is FALSE.
On reverse image search of the screenshots of the video, we could not find any reliable sources related to the video. When we searched for other sources using relevant keywords, pictures showing similar visuals of dead children were found in a post made by a politician named Sahadev Kaswan, on 17 July 2022. Sahadev Kaswan posted these pictures stating that four children succumbed after falling into the drainage pits made by the Nagore Municipal Corporation in Nagore, Rajasthan. Several news websites published articles and videos reporting this information. But we could not find the same visuals in these articles and videos.
Alt News contacted medical practitioners and confirmed that the Y-shaped central incisions visible on the children’s body would be made for post-mortem, not for the kidney transplantations as claimed in the post. Though we could not ascertain the exact details of the video, it can be confirmed that the video shared in the post is old, and. is not a recent incident of child kidnapping.
Published (13 September 2022):
Quite a few photos and videos are being shared on social media with the claim that they show people kidnapping children and illegally harvesting their organs. Let’s fact-check the claim made in the posts.
When we searched with some related keywords, the same visuals were found in a video posted by ‘Singer Raunak Navin’. On watching the full video, it can be found that it is a scripted video. At the end of the video, the actor says that the video was made for the purpose of awareness.
The extended version of the same video was found to be uploaded by the ‘Social Message’ YouTube channel, which regularly posts such scripted videos. Also, on the posted video, one can observe a disclaimer saying – “This video is a complete fiction all the events in the video are scripted and made for awareness purpose only….”
We searched the internet with relevant keywords and found two Facebook posts (here and here) with an extended version of the video from the viral post. In the extended version, a person secretly records what seems like a gang carrying kids that they abducted into the woods. But these videos are marked with two disclaimers, one that appears at 0:29 and the other at 1:27 timestamp. They state that the video is completely fictional. Hence, we can confirm that this is not an actual incident.
According to Varanasi Rural Police, on 01 September 2022, some sadhus were brought to the police station and interrogated after the villagers suspected them while asking for alms by roaming in the Barangoan area of UP. All their names and address were verified, and no criminal history was found against them. Later, they were released. The viral video is from the Beera Patti area under Barangoan Police station, not Varanasi Rural. ‘Dainik Bhaskar’ also published this news on its website.
There are two different photos in the post. The first photo was found in a video published by a YouTube channel named Praveen Kumar SM on 15 December 2018. A disclaimer mentioned below the video states, “Please don’t go out of your way to or hate on anyone I talk about in my videos, this channel is to entertain people and I usually focus on joking about what the people are doing not the individual themselves, please don’t go spreading hate it’s all for laughs”. So, it can be confirmed that the photo shared in the post shows a screenshot from a scripted drama.
The second photo was found as the thumbnail image of a scripted comedy video published by the ‘Comedy Plus with Neetuarya’ YouTube channel. ‘Comedy Plus with Neetuarya’ is an entertainment channel that publishes scripted comedy dramas in Hindi and Bhojpuri. This YouTube channel published the video describing it as visuals of how kidney organ thieves kidnap children.
We found the same video published on a Facebook page named ‘Sonu Chaudhary Films’. Sonu Choudhary is a video creator who publishes pranks and scripted videos on social media. At 0:40 minutes of the video, there is a disclaimer saying, “The content made in this video should be considered for entertainment purpose only, information contained herein is not intended to be source of advice or credit analysis with respect to the information presented, any action you take inspiring from this video is strictly at your own risk and we will not be liable for any losses and damages in connection with the use of information available in this video”.
Other posts:
Previously, when similar scripted and other unrelated visuals were shared as real kidnapping incidents, FACTLY debunked those posts and published fact-check articles, which can be read below:
- Scripted video is being shared as real visuals of a man kidnapping a child in a suitcase
- A scripted video from Egypt is shared as visuals of a burqa-clad woman kidnapping a boy in India
- Children were sitting in the car trunk as there was no space in the car, not because they were kidnapped
- Image of a girl in Bangladesh is falsely shared as a kidnapped girl seen with Tamil beggars in Mangalore
- Truncated clip of the video that shows Gorakhpur Police asking people not to believe child kidnapping rumours is shared with a false narrative
The police have also appealed to people to not share such kidnapping rumours and report to them if they find anybody suspicious. Some of the tweets made by the police can be seen here, here, and here.
To sum it up, unrelated visuals and scripted videos are being falsely shared with child kidnapping rumours.
