DigitEye India Fact Checkers
A post is going viral on social media. The post claims that Hindus in Coimbatore are allegedly fed biryani that is laced with drugs. Along with the text, the post also contains three images. One image shows the alleged culprits with the police, the other shows the drugs, and the last picture shows a man serving biryani on a plate. The post claims,
Biryani Jehad in Coimbatore. Police found Biryani mixed with drugs to served to Hindu customers and plain Biryani for the Muslims. The drugs have hormonal effects on the sexual potency of persons. This is Jehad for Demographic change.
Digiteye India received a request to fact check this viral claim on WhatsApp.
FACT CHECK
The Digiteye India team conducted a Reverse Image Search on Google and saw that the same image had been shared with the same claim on X (formerly, Twitter) in March 2022 as well. We conducted separate reverse image searches on all three pictures and found them to be unrelated to the incident.
The first picture of the culprits standing in a police station is not from Coimbatore. A reverse image search revealed that the image was from Bijnor, Uttar Pradesh. Bijnor Police had tweeted this image when they had nabbed people who were accused of smuggling illegal arms into the madrasa in Sherkot, Uttar Pradesh. The police had recovered one pistol, four handmade guns, pistols, and many cartridges. The incident took place in July 2019.
थाना शेरकोट @bijnorpolice द्वारा मदरसे में अवैध शस्त्रों की तस्करी करते 06 अभियुक्तगण 01 पिस्टल, 04 तमंचे व भारी मात्रा में कारतूसों सहित गिरफ्तार। #uppolice @Uppolice @adgzonebareilly @digmoradabad @News18India pic.twitter.com/WDj3kkBfIu
— Bijnor Police (@bijnorpolice) July 11, 2019
The second image from the viral claim was also unrelated. It was from an article that was published by a Sri Lankan daily on May 2, 2019. The Daily Mirror article revealed that the image was related to an incident where the Sri Lankan police had discovered an illegal stock of drugs from a father and his son. The incident took place at Wolfendhal Street in Colombo, Sri Lanka.
The third image is from a YouTube video‘s thumbnail. Titled, “Indian Muslim festival DUM BIRYANI Preparation for 30 People & STREET FOOD,” the video was uploaded on July 1, 2016. The video was uploaded by a channel called – Videosmylive – Muslim Style.
We further conducted a keyword search to find out more. We came across an article by The Times Of India that was dating back to May 22, 2023. The article mentioned that Coimbatore city Sub-inspector P Thamaraikannan had lodged a complaint after he found these “biryani jihad” posts. The cybercrime police had registered a case against nine Twitter handles under sections 465, 505 (1) (b), of the Indian Penal Code and sections 66, 66 D of the Information Technology Act, 2000. Section 66D of the IT Act states that “Whoever, by means of any communication device or computer resource cheats by personation, shall be punished with imprisonment of either description for a term which may extend to three years and shall also be liable to fine which may extend to one lakh rupees.”
The claim is, hence, false.
CLAIM: Biryani shops in Coimbatore are selling biryani laced with drugs to Hindu customers.
CONCLUSION: The images used in the viral post are not related. The Coimbatore police had lodged a complaint against nine Twitter handles for spreading this fake news about “biryani jihad.”
RATING: ??? – Misrepresentation
