Scripted videos shared claiming Hindu man dressed sister in burqa, married her

Context

A post circulating on social media claims that a Hindu man married his sister after dressing her in a burqa. The post contains two videos. In one of the videos, the man introduces the woman as Rehana and claims to have married her according to Hindu customs. The second video features the same couple, with an additional claim that they are siblings who entered into a marital relationship. The caption of the post read, "So much hatred for one religion, why have they become so blind in hatred, they are marrying their real sister. Putting a burqa on his own sister, this saffron-wearing man is promoting the saffron love trap, as well as saying obscene things; he is also making the girl demand money for the love trap."

The post made claims of a "saffron love trap" seemingly as a counter to the 'love jihad' conspiracy theory often seen in communal posts on social media. 'Love jihad' is the claim that Muslim men entrap Hindu women into marriage, only to convert them to Islam. The post insinuated that the man in the video is pushing for Hindu men to marry Muslim women and likely perform the reverse.

Several users shared this post, one of which has received 367k views and over 5,000 likes.

In Fact

We went through the comments section of the tweet and found several people claiming that this is a scripted video. One user specifically identified the content as belonging to a YouTuber. Following this lead, we traced the viral videos back to a YouTube channel named Vikram Mishra, an account name that can also be seen in the second recording in the tweet. We found the first video was uploaded on the channel on September 2, 2022, while the second one was published on September 15, 2022.

Further research revealed that the YouTube channel regularly produces scripted videos. The featured couple has appeared in various other videos, portraying roles such as boyfriend-girlfriend, police-civilian, priest-Muslim girl, and brother-sister, among others. In all these videos, they claim to be married. Additionally, there are a few videos where the woman acts alone, either portraying herself as a widow or confessing being married to five different men.

Our assessment concludes that these are scripted videos, and the individuals seen in the video are actors. The bios of the Facebook and Instagram pages linked to the YouTube channel mention video creator. Mishra's own bio on both accounts states that he is an actor and a producer.

Logically Facts has also reached out to Mishra, the creator of these videos, for a comment. This story will be updated if and when we receive a response.

There are several Facebook channels that share similar scripted videos to gain quick traction. Logically Facts has recently fact-checked many such scripted videos circulating on social media.

The Verdict

Scripted videos from 2022 have been shared falsely, claiming that a Hindu brother married his sister after dressing her in a burqa to encourage a "saffron love trap." The viral videos were created as content by actors and do not have any real basis. Therefore, we have marked this claim as false.