A dramatized video that shows a group of men celebrating a woman's birthday is viral on social media with false communal claims targeting Muslims. The video shows two women and four men in a balcony cutting a cake that has apparently been laced with a sedative.
BOOM found that the viral video is a scripted and staged. We traced the video to a Facebook page known for posting dramatised videos and passing them off as CCTV footage to gain followers.
The video is latest in a series of scripted videos that have been passed off with unrelated communal claims on social media. BOOM has debunked several videos shared by 'influencers' on Facebook who post dramatized videos to gain followers and go viral. Although the influencers who are often models and actors, upload these videos with disclaimers saying they are for 'educational purposes' only, these videos are prone to abuse as they are shared with captions targeting Muslims.
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The viral clip appears to be a CCTV footage. It shows a group of four men and two women celebrating a birthday party. While three of the men distract the women in clicking selfies, a fourth man spikes the cake. Later, when the two women consume the cake, they appear to lose consciousness and are taken inside a room by the men.
A Facebook post sharing the video has a Hindi caption which translates to 'If these mullas are your friends then watch how they wage jihad. Ghazwa-e-Hind. First they sedate you and record sex clips and later they force you into sex slavery. Then comes blackmailing, religious conversion and many more things you might have not imagined even in your dreams. Wake up, Hindus'.
(Hindi: ये मुल्ले अगर आपके दोस्त है तो देख लीजिए, ये जिहाद कैसे करते है जिहाद गजवा ए हिंद पहले बेहोश करके सेक्स क्लिप निकालते है फिर आपको बनाते है सेक्स स्लेवरी। फिर ब्लेकमेलिंग, धर्म परिवर्तन और भी बहुत कुछ जो आप सपने में भी नही सोच सकते जागो मेरे हिंदू शेरो जागो, ऐसे दोस्तों से बचें, इससे पहले कि बहुत देर हो जाए, जागो।)
View the post here.
The same video has been shared from multiple Facebook pages and twitter handles with similar claims.
Fact Check
Taking cue from our earlier fact check on similar scripted videos, we did a search with keywords 'be careful birthday cake' on Facebook and found the same video uploaded on the verified Facebook page of Sanjjanaa Galrani.
The video was uploaded on Galrani's page on December 4, 2021 with a caption reading 'BE CAREFUL. Thank you for watching! Please be aware that this page features scripted dramas and parodies as well. These short films are for entertainment & educational purposes only!'.
The video has over 10 million views.
Click here to view the post.
Galrani's Facebook page mentions her as an actor. The intro on her page clearly states 'I do share videos and scripted dramas to create awareness'. Moreover, we found several similar scripted videos shared as CCTV footage on her timeline.
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BOOM found that the all the staged videos shared from Gilrani's verified handle use red circles and arrows to point out at various object. We also found that the video from Sanjjanaa Gilrani's Facebook page has been edited on a video editing website clideo.com whose logo is clearly visible on the viral video.
The tool has been used to separately add the words 'Beware of Jihadi' on the video.
BOOM has reached out to the page and will update the story if we receive a reply.