Fact Check: No Hindu Temple Demolished, Viral Clip Is A Part Of An Ancient Ritual Ceremony
Spokesman Report Said- Video is old and has no communal angle in the matter
RSFC (Team Mohali)- A Video Clip is going viral on social media. In the video, police officials can been seen dragging Hindu God's Idol with a tractor. Now it is being claimed that the matter has come to light from Rajasthan where the God Bhairo Temple was demolished and the idol present there was dragged through the entire village by a tractor. By making this video viral, users are targeting the ruling Congress government in Rajasthan.
X account "Hum Log We The People (@ajaychauhan41)" shared the video on 19 September 2023 and wrote (Roughly Translated), "The Video is said to be from Rajasthan where the temple of Bhairon Baba is being demolished and the idol is being dragged with a tractor... Question Arises- Has any illegal tomb or dargah ever been demolished by the Gehlot government?"
Rozana Spokesman in it's investigation found the claim to be fake. This video is old and has no communal angle in the matter.
Spokesman's Investigation....
Starting the investigation, we first watched this video carefully. We found that the police personnels seen in the video were wearing face masks. From this, there is a clear suspicion that the matter may be related to the Corona period. Moving forward, we started to find the original source of the video through keyword search.
We found this video uploaded on many old posts. Facebook user "Kuldeep Meena Adiwasi" shared this video on 21 May 2021 and wrote, "People were gathering at Bhairoji, then the police took Bhairuji to the police station and now not a single villager is coming for Bhairoji's bail."
When we checked the comments on this post, we found that the user described video's location as Simliya Village of Rajasthan. We found that Simliya Village comes under Sultanpur tehsil of Kota district of Rajasthan.
Keeping this information in mind, we contacted Simliya Police Station. Speaking with us, Station House Officer Ummed Singh confirmed the viral video and said, "This viral video is not recent but it is from 2021 when we took the Idol of Ghas Bhairav ji. Because people were gathering for the puja, which is being done to bring rain and cure from the corona virus. We performed this tradition to take care of people's faith and Covid Guidelines. This video is from Simliya village."
"Ummed Singh said that earlier this tradition was done by means of buffalos etc. and now this ride is carried out by the means of tractors."
"Tradition of Ghas Bhairav Ji"
This tradition of Ghas Bhairav Ji is ancient. This tradition is celebrated in almost every village of Rajasthan. This is done when there is no rain or when a crisis like disease strikes. It is believed that by circling the grass Bhairav ji around the village, rain falls and the crisis is averted.
With the last step of our investigation, we started to search whether an incident like the viral claim has happened in Rajasthan or not. We have not found any news regarding or like the viral claim.
Result - Rozana Spokesman in it's investigation found the claim to be fake. This video is old and has no communal angle in the matter. It is an ancient tradition that is performed when there is no rain or when a calamity like disease strikes.