Early this month chief minister Yogi Adityanath said that some people are trying to spread negative and misleading propaganda by linking the Mahakumbh to VIP bathing. Critics too implicated the culture of VIP entitlement for the fatal crowd rush on the river bank during the stampede.
A video is now being widely shared on social media platforms, which shows a media person slapping the “DM” after questioning him about the entry of an alleged, “VIP vehicle” in the Mahakumbh premises. During the investigation, we found that the video is scripted and the video is being shared as that of a real incident in Prayagraj.
Claim:
X user ashokdnoda shared the viral video with the viral claim.
Other users too are sharing the video with the same claim.
Investigation:
We started the investigation by uploading the video to the InVid tool and obtaining keyframes from the same. We then ran a reverse image search on these keyframes one by one.
We found the video posted on a YouTube channel. The original credits were given to Harsh Rajput.
This led us to the YouTube channel of Harsh Rajput. The full video of 12 minutes 14 seconds was uploaded on his channel five days ago.
There were several bits in this video. And the one showing the VIP culture began at around 4 min 12 seconds.
Harsh Rajput’s YouTube channel has 4.89 million subscribers. His Instagram account has 1.2 million subscribers, and he uploaded a clip similar to the YouTube video on his Instagram handle. His bio also mentions that he is a digital creator. In his several videos he is seen wearing a face mask.
He had posted the reporter bit on his Facebook page too, and in the beginning of his video the disclaimer mentioned that the video was a scripted sketch and was made for entertainment only.
The caption stated: FUNNY VIDEO ON MAHAKUMBH 2025 ,
MEANT FOR ENTERTAINMENT PURPOSE ONLY .
Conclusion: A scripted video by a digital creator on Mahakumbh, is being shared as a real incident of a reporter calling out VIP culture in Prayagraj on account of Mahakumbh. The viral claim is false.
