Lighthouse Journalism came across a video being widely shared on social media platforms. Several users were sharing the video claiming that priests of a temple were fighting amongst themselves over the distribution of donations received by the temple. During the investigation we found this claim to be false. The fight occurred over singing of certain hymns.
Claim:
X user @Manishkumarttp shared the viral video on his profile.
Other users too are sharing this video with the same claim.
Investigation:
We started our investigation by uploading the video in the InVid tool and extracting keyframes from the same.
We ran a reverse image search on one of the keyframes and found a news report published on the India Today website.
The story was updated on the platform in January, 2024. The report mentioned: A brawl broke out between two sects of Iyengars – the Vadakalai and the Thenkalai, on Wednesday, during a temple procession in Tamil Nadu’s Kancheepuram. The incident was reported from the Varadharaja Perumal Temple, over singing hymns, while the idol from the temple was being taken out through several districts of the state.
The report also carried the video of the incident.
We also found the story about the same on the website of various media organisations published in different Indian regional languages.
Conclusion: Viral claim stating the priests of the temple fought among themselves over distribution of donation received by the temple is false. The video being shared in the context is actually from a brawl that broke out between two sects of Iyengars during a temple procession in Kancheepuram, this year in January. The incident happened over singing hymns, while the idol was being taken out from the temple. Viral claim is false.
