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| - Fact Check: This video DOESN'T show man falling into open manhole amid heavy rains in Himachal Pradesh
This video uses creative editing to make it look like a person fell into an open manhole. It's also not from India at all. It's from Indonesia.
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India Today Fact Check
The 2020 video from Indonesia uses creative editing to make it look like a man fell into a puddle.
As relentless rains batter northern India, countless photos and videos of floods and rains have taken over social media. Among these was a shocking video of a man allegedly falling into an open manhole while walking into a puddle in Himachal Pradesh.
In the viral video, a man carrying a green umbrella could be seen walking in the rain. Suddenly, as he steps into a puddle, he disappears. Sharing the video, a Twitter user wrote, “Be careful in this monsoon. This man drowned in the manhole due to heavy rainfall in Himachal Pradesh.” Its archived version can be seen here.
India Today, however, found that the video was digitally edited to create the illusion of falling into a manhole.
Our Probe
A reverse search of keyframes from the viral video led us to the account of an Instagram user called Faisal_VFX. The video in question was uploaded to the account on September 8, 2020. Faisal is a popular video creator with more than 37,000 followers on the platform and his account is full of visual tricks done through creative editing.
We observed several inconsistencies in the clip, pointing towards digital alterations. We noticed that the umbrella went flying into the air even before the man stepped into the puddle. The man falling did not exhibit any reflex movement, which comes instinctively in such situations. The angle between the hand and head also remained unchanged throughout the fall.
These observations made it evident that the video was staged. Moreover, we also found that the video was not from India at all.
Geolocation
We noticed that the comments and captions on Faisal’s post were in Indonesian. In the viral video, we observed a car whose license plate number began with "KT". We found that “KT” licence plates are registered in East Kalimantan in Indonesia. We also noticed that in the video, next to the puddle, there was an eatery.
We checked Faisal's Facebook and Instagram accounts and found several photos of a similar-looking eatery. This eatery was also featured in many of his videos.
The banner at the eatery advertised that "Martabak", a stuffed pancake found in several countries in South and Southeast Asia, was sold here. The banner said, “Warung Martabak Kari India”. So, we searched for these keywords in the East Kalimantan region in Indonesia on Google Maps and were able to pinpoint the place where the viral video was shot.
The Google Street View of this area is from August 2019 and featured a different eatery. However, the earliest photos of the eatery we found on Faisal’s Facebook profile were from October 2019, suggesting that this particular eatery may not have existed in August 2019. However, we observed several similarities in the locations which confirmed that the viral video was shot in Indonesia.
Given below is a comparison between the Street View and the viral video:
We were also able to pinpoint from where the video was shot.
Thus, it’s more than clear that this video doesn’t actually show a man falling into an open manhole in Himachal Pradesh.
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You can also send us an email at factcheck@intoday.com
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