Fact Check: Hate campaign against Hindus ‘adulterating watermelons’ during Ramzan is scripted, it is an old video
The holy month of Ramadan 2025 started on March 2, 2025. It is a 30-day practice, which will end on March 31, 2025. Due
Claim :
Viral video shows a Hindu person injecting chemicals into watermelons and selling them during RamadanFact :
This is a scripted video, published by a YouTube channel named The Social Junction
The holy month of Ramadan 2025 started on March 2, 2025. It is a 30-day practice, which will end on March 31, 2025. Due to the increase in consumption of fruits, dry fruits and other commodities during this month, and simultaneous rise in temperature due to onset of summer, the prices of the edibles are soaring. People have also increased consumption of fruits to beat the increasing heat. With several areas witnessing temperatures more than usual, demand for fruits like watermelons is especially high at this time.
Amidst this, a video of a person trying to adulterate a watermelon fruit is going viral on social media with the captions implying that the fruit vendor is adulterating watermelon right during the period of Ramzan to affect the Muslim community. The caption on the video goes as “ Save the lives of Muslims in Ramadan , earn good deeds by sharing this video !! While shopping for Iftaari in Ramadan , one mistake of yours can ruin everyone . #Ramadan #RamadanKareem # Ramadan2025”. When translated, it claims “Save the lives of Muslims in Ramadan, Earn goodness by sharing this video!! While shopping for Iftaar in Ramadan, one mistake of yours can result in everyone's loss.”
Here is the archive link of the claim.
Fact Check:
The claim is False. The video does not show adulteration by a fruit vendor. The video is a scripted video published by a YouTube channel named The Social Junction.
When we extracted keyframes from the video, we found that the video is an old one. We found that the video was shared on Facebook in May 2024
Upon further search, we found that the video was published by a YouTube channel named The Social Junction with the title “तरबूजखानेवालेजरूरदेखें, कैसेहोताहैआपकेसेहतसेखिलवाड़ सावधान!” This video is published on the channel on April 29, 2024.
The YouTube channel contains many similar videos showing young persons being caught for adulterating fruits like watermelon and mangoes. Another video featuring a similar young person adulterating watermelons was also found on the channel with the disclaimer stating that the video is a complete fiction and all the events in the video are scripted and made for awareness purposes only.
Though the viral video does not have any such disclaimer, we can clearly see that the video was made by the same team and was also scripted. Here is the comparison of the screenshots from both videos.
Telugupost team also debunked a similar claim which showed a young person filling chemicals into a mango in July 2024. We found that the video from the same YouTube channel was viral with false claims.
Therefore, the scripted videos showing people filling chemicals into fruits are in circulation on social media with false claims. The claim that the viral video showing a person filling chemicals into a watermelon is targeting a particular community is False. It is an old video created for awareness purposes and the persons in the video are actors.
