DigitEye India Fact Checkers
A video which shows a group of men extorting money from a man in a car is going viral with communal claims. The claims allege that the video is shot in Kerala and it shows men forcefully asking for money from people who do not want to contribute to their Christmas donation. The 2:55 minute-long video shows the men pulling out the man from his car and assaulting him.
The claim that is going viral with the video states,
ആഘോഷം ഗംഭീരമാക്കാൻ നാട്ടുകാരുടെ കയ്യിൽ നിന്നും ബലമായി പിരിവെടുക്കുന്നു അതും നമ്മുടെ കേരളത്തിൽ എങ്ങോട്ടാണ് നാടിൻറെ ഈ പോക്ക് മദ്യവും മയക്കുമരുന്നുമായി ഒരുപറ്റം ചെറുപ്പക്കാർ നാട്ടുകാരെ ഭീതിയിലാഴ്ത്തുന്ന അവസ്ഥ കാണുക😞😞😞😞😞🙏 ദൈവത്തിന്റെ സ്വന്തം നാട്
(Translation: It is forcefully collected from the hands of the locals to make the celebration grand and that too in our Kerala, where is this country going? Look at the condition of many young people terrorizing the locals with alcohol and drugs😞😞😞😞😞🙏 God’s own country)
Digiteye India received a request on WhatsApp to fact check this viral video.
We also found this video shared on X (formerly, Twitter) with the same claim.
Christmas spirit choked by extortion rackets fostered by Kerala's Left ecosystem.
High on drugs and alchohol, goons are forcefully extorting money in the name of Christmas donation!
Kerala turned into a hub of drugs by the Left, holding the youth captive for their political… pic.twitter.com/0t1D566hXR
— Anoop Antony (Modi Ka Parivar) (@AnoopKaippalli) December 27, 2023
FACT CHECK
The Digiteye India team used inVID – a video verification tool – to break the video into multiple keyframes. We used these frames and ran a Reverse Image Search on Google.
One of the results led us to a video posted on Facebook on December 26. A user named Sujith Ramachandran had shared the same video. He wrote,
നാടൊട്ടുക്കു പിരിവ്!
കടക്കൽ നിന്ന് കുളത്തുപ്പുഴക്ക് കുടുംബവുമായി സഞ്ചരിച്ച യുവാവിന് ഓന്തുപച്ച എന്ന സ്ഥലത്തു വെച്ച് സംഭവിച്ചത്അരങ്ങിൽ : ജിഷ്ണു മഴവില്ല് , സുർജിത്, ബൈജു, സിദ്ധീഖ്, നൗഷാദ്, മഹേഷ്‌, വിജയൻ കടക്കൽ, ജ്യോതിഷ് & പിച്ചുഅണിയറയിൽ :സുജിത് രാമചന്ദ്രൻ
Disclimer : Created video for awareness purpose(Translation: Nationwide collection! The incident happened to a young man who was traveling with his family from Katakal to Kulathupuzha at a place called Onthupacha Arang : Jishnu Mazhavil, Surjit, Baiju, Siddique, Naushad, Mahesh, Vijayan Katakal, Jyotish & Pichu Starring: Sujith Ramachandran Disclimer : Created video for awareness purpose)
Initially, when the video was shared on December 26, the caption only read, “Nationwide collection! What happened to the young man who was travelling with his family from Katakut to Kulathupuzha.” However, the caption was edited on December 27 at 2:45 PM. In the edited caption, the name of the people in the sketch and the disclaimer were added.
The claim is, hence, false.
CLAIM: A scripted video of money extortion in Kerala is being shared with a communal claim.
CONCLUSION: The video was shared on December 26 by a user named Sujith Ramachandran on Facebook. The user mentioned the cast of the sketch. He also added a disclaimer later that the video was shot purely to spread awareness.
RATING: Misinterpretation — 
