A clip of an old man pleading with his daughter to not marry the man of her choice is viral with a false and communal claim that he is trying to stop her from marrying a Muslim.
BOOM found that the video is from Pali, Rajasthan and local police said that the couple belong to the same religion and are from the Dewasi (Rabari) caste. We also reached out to the brother of the groom who said he is contemplating filing a police complaint against the false claims. "The girl in the video -is my sister-in-law who married my brother, Lakharam."
A Twitter user with a large right-wing following, Renee Lynn tweeted the video with the false claim that the woman was marrying a Muslim and added that "she will regret it because right after marriage she will be killed".
Lynn tweeted the video with the caption, "Another Hindu Daughter deceived in Islam Marriage. Father puts his Turban on his Daughter's feet begging her not to marry but she did not accept. Just wait & watch, she will regret it because right after marriage she will be killed. If lucky she might manage to escape, Guarantee!"
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Viral on Facebook
The same video is being shared on Facebook with the same false claim which when translated reads, "To convince a daughter who is on the path of love jihad and to save her honor, the father who has to keep a turban in his own daughter's feet. it is better to be childless than having such a daughter"
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(In Hindi - लव जिहाद की राह चल रही बेटी को समझाने और अपनी इज़्ज़त बचाने के लिए जिस बाप को अपनी ही बेटी के पैरो में पगड़ी रखनी पड़े तो ऐसी बेटी होने से बेहतर बेऔलाद होना ही ठीक है ।)
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FACT-CHECK
BOOM found that the video is from Pali district in Rajasthan and identified the woman as Sita and the man she is marrying as Lakharam, both from the Dewasi (Rabari) community in Rajasthan. We also spoke to the brother of the groom, who dismissed the false claims.
A reverse image search showed various posts that were being shared with the video and in the list we found a Facebook Live on a page called - Royal Raika, who identified the old man seen in the video and said the viral claim that the woman is marrying a Muslim is false. He further identifying the couple getting married as Sita and Lakharam.
We then contacted Pali police who confirmed that the young couple in the video are from the same caste. The police said that the family was against the woman, Sita, marrying the man, Lakharam as her marriage had been arranged to someone else, so the couple eloped following which the family filed a missing persons' complaint.
Girdhar Singh, Station House Officer, Sadi police station denied that there was a communal angle to the video or the wedding. "The woman's name is Sita (20) and on August 29, 2020, the family filed a complaint that she was missing. It was later found that she had eloped with her boyfriend, Lakharam (21). The love jihad angle is completely false as both are from the same community. She told the Police that she wants to live with Lakharam and that they had already done a court marriage," said Singh. Assistant Superintendent of Police of Pali District, Brajesh Soni also denied that there is a communal angle to the case and stated that both the husband and wife are Hindus belonging to the same Dewasi case
BOOM also reached out to Lakharam's brother Rakesh Dewasi who said that the video is from September 27, 2020, and shot at the Police Superintendent's (SP) office in Pali. "My brother, Lakharam, got married to Sita on the same day in a court and then came to the SP office. At the SP office, Sita's parents and brothers were already there and the video is shot from that time when they were pleading with her to not get married to my brother. They are not Muslims and both of them are Dewasis. They are completely safe and living with us in Pune now," said Rakesh.
BOOM has previously debunked fake news surrounding 'Love Jihad', when images of an inter-faith couple were shared along with a photo of a dead body falsely claiming that she was murdered by her Muslim husband after their wedding and a murder victim's photo was falsely shared with an unrelated wedding card of an inter-faith couple.
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