Video Shows Muslim Fruit-Seller Cheating Hindu Customers? No, It’s Scripted

The video is posted on a 'prank' YouTube channel.

A 4:23-minute video, which shows two men questioning and later assaulting a fruit-seller for cheating customers by not weighing properly is being shared with a communal claim that it shows a "Muslim fruit-vendor cheating Hindu consumers".

The claim comes in the backdrop of a ban on Muslim traders at several religious festivals across Karnataka after right-wing Hindutva groups, namely Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP), Bajrang Dal, and Sree Rama Sene, called for it.

However, we found the video on a "prank" YouTube channel and it had no communal angle to it.

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CLAIM

The video is being shared with the claim in Hindi that reads, "फल खरीदने के बाद काटे के तरफ जरूर ध्यान रखें, वरना ये *मुस्लिम फल विक्रेता* एसे गड़बड़ी करते हे ओर *हिंदु ग्राहक* को बेवकूफ बनाते हे."

(Translation: While buying fruits, do keep an eye on the weighing scale, else these Muslim fruit sellers would cheat and Hindu customers would be fooled this way.)

Several social media users have shared the video on Facebook and Twitter along with similar claims and the archived links can be seen here, here and here.

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WHAT WE FOUND

While watching one of the videos, we found a note that said, 'Watch more original videos by: Raju Bharti."

We found the video on the Facebook page of the user where the video was uploaded with the caption as 'united state'. The video posted on 26 March has 70 million views.

Further, we found the video on the YouTube channel named 'Bharti Prank', which described itself as a "channel related to fun and entertainment".

The video was posted on 21 March and the title in Hindi read, 'फल वाले का घिनैना हरकत देख कर आपका होश उड़ जायेगा'.

(Translation: Looking at the horrible act of the fruit-seller, you will be surprised.)

The video has over 1.9 million views at the time of writing this article.

We looked at the Facebook and YouTube timelines of the account and found that the account posted several prank videos.

Moreover, Raju Bharti can be seen in other prank videos posted on the channel.

Clearly, a video from a prank channel is being shared on social media with a false communal spin.

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Notably, several such scripted videos made for "awareness or entertainment" purposes have been shared in the past with a communal claim.

The Quint's WebQoof team has debunked several such videos.

While one video which showed a male tailor inappropriately touching women while taking measurements is shared to warn "Hindu women to not enter Muslim shops as they have bad mentality," another scripted video was shared linking it to love jihad.

Yet another scripted video was shared falsely claiming that Muslim men would spike birthday cakes and record objectionable videos of the girls, forcing them to convert later to Islam.

A 2020 video solely made for "awareness purposes" was shared giving a communal spin stating that Muslim men harassed women at a bus stop with one woman using pepper spray to protect herself.

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