A gruesome video of a bull being shot in the head is going viral on social media with a false claim that it shows Kerala Congress media in-charge Mohammed Mujahid Islam killing a cow to celebrate Priyanka Gandhi's victory in Wayanad.
BOOM found that the viral video has been present on social media since May 2024 with the claim of being from Manipur. In a social media post, animal rights organization PETA India took cognizance of the video and contacted the cyber crime police of Manipur.
Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi was elected as an MP for the first time after registering a record victory with a margin of over four lakh votes in the recently-held by-election for the Wayanad Lok Sabha seat.
The video was shared on X with a Hindi caption, which translates to, "The Congress party has crossed all limits of hatred towards Hindus. This person named Mohammed Mujahid Islam is the "media in-charge of Kerala Congress". The height of hatred towards Hindus is that he sacrificed a cow by shooting it for Priyanka Gandhi's victory in Wayanad.😡😡 Share this video so much that it reaches the Home Ministry of India and he is arrested."
View an archive of the post here.
Video Has Been Online Since May 2024
On searching Google with keywords related to the viral video, we found a post on X dated May 7, 2024 showing the same video. In this post, the video was described as originating from Manipur with the claim that it shows Christian Kuki terrorists shooting a cow in the head to tease Hindus.
Animal rights organisation PETA responded to the tweet, taking cognizance of the act, and stated that it's "Cruelty Response Team is working with Manipur Police’s Cyber Crime Cell to confirm the details with respect to the location of the crime." It adds in the tweet that an FIR will be registered once the origin of the video is ascertained.
The video was also reported as an incident from Manipur by some news outlets (read here and here).
Confirmation of Thadu dialect belonging to Kuki community in video
BOOM reached out to Peta India's Associate Director Meet Asher, who told us, "This video surfaced in May this year and according to the information given with it, it was an incident from Manipur. After this, the Cruelty Response Team contacted the Manipur DGP and Police Headquarters, although no complaint was received about this incident there."
"The Cyber Crime Unit (CCU) at the police headquarters, upon investigating the video, said that the video contains a conversation in Thadu dialect which is allegedly related to the Kuki community. After this, the video was sent to the CCU units of all the districts of Manipur, although we have not yet received any response from the police regarding the location of the incident and the action taken in this regard," he added.
Kerala Congress denies viral claim
BOOM also reached out to Deepthi Varghese, general secratary of Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee, who said that the claims made in the video are completely fake. She confirmed that she is the media in-charge of Congress Kerala, and that there is no person named Mohammed Mujahid Islam in her team.
Additionally, when we searched on Google with the keyword "Manipur man shot cow to death", we found a similar incident from February 2021 in which a cow is seen being shot in a similar viral video. The incident took place in Ukhrul district of Manipur, and a case was registered in this matter after a complaint by PETA India. BOOM was unable to independently trace the location and timing of the viral video, however our investigations clearly show that the video is from May 2024 or earlier, and is not related to the recent bypolls in Kerala.