A video depicting a man kicking a burqa-clad individual holding a child is being circulated on Facebook with the caption claiming, “A veiled Muslim woman deceived by an ISKCON member has been driven from her home.” FactWatch’s investigation reveals the video is scripted and originates from India. The person in the burqa is not a woman but a man.

The captions of the posts with the video allege, “A veiled Muslim woman, deceived by an ISKCON member, has been driven from her home. Such incidents are being heard and seen in every district, even every police station. Yet Muslim sisters remain unaware.” These captions suggest that veiled Muslim women are leaving their homes due to romantic or marital involvement with ISKCON members and are later subjected to abuse.

Upon analysis, it appears the video lacks characteristics of a genuine violent incident. Real footage of such assaults rarely has such precise framing. No shouting or commotion is heard; instead, background music plays. No bystanders are visible, and the child in the video shows no signs of fear or distress. At first glance, the video appears staged.

Using key frames from the video for reverse image search, a BBC report was found titled “Staged videos fuel religious hate and misogyny in India,” published on August 11, 2023, authored by Akhil Ranjan.

According to the BBC report, “In India, millions have watched and shared a video in which a man attacks a burqa-clad person holding a child. He then forcibly removes the burqa, revealing a man underneath. The accompanying Hindi message warns people to be alert, suggesting that criminals are using burqas—typically worn by Muslim women—to disguise themselves for child abduction. The video was uploaded to YouTube in early 2023 and viewed over 29 million times before being removed. However, it was not footage of a real incident. It was staged using amateur actors and a set script. These dramatic videos, originally created for entertainment, are increasingly being mistaken for real incidents on social media in India. Such videos often include false claims that incite religious hatred and misogyny.”

The report includes two still images that clearly match scenes from the viral video.

Further investigation using relevant keywords led to a fact-check report from Alt News titled “Yet another scripted video goes viral with claims of burqa being used for child kidnapping,” published on March 20, 2023.

Alt News stated, “The person seen in the video is Ankur Jatuskaran, who frequently posts scripted content. Alt News has previously verified the authenticity of several of his viral videos. According to his Facebook page, Ankur creates prank videos and uploads them on his YouTube channel and Facebook page. Upon reviewing his YouTube channel, we found that this video was uploaded on February 18, 2023, and has already been viewed over 20 million times. No disclaimer was included with the video.”

The report also contains images that correspond to the discussed video.

Based on the reports from BBC and Alt News, FactWatch traced Ankur Jatuskaran’s YouTube and Facebook profiles and confirmed that he regularly uploads numerous scripted videos.

As such, the Facebook posts attempting to link ISKCON with communal hatred by sharing a scripted video have been determined to be false.

Original News Source: https://www.fact-watch.org/scipted-video-vs-iskon/