A disturbing video of a man trying to commit suicide by touching a live transformer is being shared on social media with the false claim that he is a Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) volunteer taking the extreme step in protest against the recently passed Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA).
The 28-second clip shows the man attempting to take his life by holding a transformer's high-tension terminal.
BOOM has decided not to include the video due to its disturbing nature.
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We received the video on our WhatsApp helpline number (7700906111) asking about its veracity.
The Malayalam caption accompanying the video translates to, "my death is for this country. Hurt by the wounds suffered by India in whom he took pride, a heart-broken BJP activist committed suicide."
(Translated from Malayalam - "എന്റെ മരണം ഈ രാജ്യത്തിന് വേണ്ടി. അഭിമാനമായ ഇന്ത്യയെ വെട്ടി പരിക്കേൽപ്പിച്ചതിൽ മനംനൊന്ത് രാജസ്ഥാനിൽ BJP പ്രവർത്തകൻ ആത്മഹത്യ ചെയ്തു."
We searched on Facebook with the Malayalam caption and found that the video is viral with the same misleading caption.
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FACT-CHECK
We broke the video into key frames and ran a reverse image search. We found articles in Tamil that indicated that this incident had taken place in Madurai, Tamil Nadu.
One can spot a screen grab in the below article that matches the viral video, the same man can be spotted standing near the transformer.
We searched with the keywords, 'Madurai army man suicide' on Google and found a Times Of India article dated January 8, 2020, with the headline, "Army man under inquiry attempts suicide"
The article states that an army jawan, P Muthu, 25, who was posted in Rajasthan, attempted suicide by holding a high-tension terminal of a transformer on the premises of the Madurai district collectorate in Tamil Nadu on January 7, 2020.
Muthu had appeared before the revenue divisional officer (RDO), after his wife committed suicide. Muthu had married Thenisha from Nilakottai in Dindigul district three-and-a-half months ago and there was reportedly a dispute in the family over dowry.
A case was registered in this regard with the Nilakottai police and an inquiry was carried out, additionally an RDO inquiry was also in progress. Muthu had come out of the RDO office and went straight to the transformer and climbed on to it, reported TOI.
Muthu was rushed to the Government Rajaji Hospital after the incident, where he is being treated. The same video was previously fact-checked by NewsMeter on January 10, 2020, when it was viral with another false claim that a farmer electrocuted himself after the police filed false cases on him during a farmer agitation in Amaravati, Andra Pradesh.