Fact Check: Viral Video Of Man Threatening Over Electricity Theft Is From Pakistan, Not India

New Delhi (Vishvas News). A video related to electricity theft is going viral on social media, with claims that it shows an incident from India. In the video, a man can be seen threatening electricity department employees.

Vishvas News’ investigation revealed that the viral claim is false and the video has no connection with India, but with Pakistan, dating back to 2020. It is falsely being circulated now to mislead people.

What is going viral

On September 2, 2024, Facebook user Avnish K shared the viral video with the caption, “Friends, look at a frightened Muslim of India saying, “I will die or kill, but I will steal electricity! I will not allow the meter to be installed…”

Investigation

To verify the authenticity of the viral claim, we conducted a Google search using relevant keywords. We found the video on a Pakistani page Digital TV 360, uploaded on August 6, 2020. According to the Urdu caption, the video depicts an incident in Pakistan.

Based on the gathered information, we conducted another Google search with additional keywords. We found a report on Pakistan’s news website Siasat.pk, published on July 28, 2020. According to the report, the viral video captures an incident in Karachi, Pakistan, where a man was caught stealing electricity. Rather than accepting his mistake, he began threatening the employees.

For further details, we reached out to Niamat Khan, a journalist with Pakistan Arab News. She confirmed that the viral video is from an incident that took place about four years ago in Karachi, Pakistan, involving a person caught stealing electricity.

Finally, we scanned the profile of the user who shared the video with the misleading claim. The user frequently shares posts aligned to a particular ideology and has around six thousand followers.