Video of child crying for his father amidst Sabarimala crowd goes viral with a communal angle

The video of a lost child searching for his father amidst the crowd at Sabarimala temple is being shared as beating and arrest of Hindus in Kerala. The child was soon reunited with his father.

A heartbreaking video of a child crying and screaming in a police van to search for his father is going viral on the internet. According to social media users, this video is from Sabarimala temple, where lakhs of devotees have been coming for darshan every day for the last few weeks. The child can be seen pleading with a policeman with folded hands to find his father and family. While sharing this video, it is being claimed that the Hindus who came to see Lord Ayyappa in Sabarimala, Kerala were beaten and arrested, of which this child seen in the video was also a victim.

The caption of the viral video reads, “Hindus who came to visit Lord Ayyappa in Kerala’s Sabarimala were beaten and arrested. Look at this condition of a small Hindu child in Kerala. Kerala government is the modern Aurangzeb, it seems we have to make sacrifices to free each temple, as we did for Ram temple…”

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Fact Check- 

We started our investigation by searching for news reports related to the viral video, which led us to a report published by Asianet New Channel, which has been published on 12 December 2023. According to reports, the footage shows the child searching for his father, who was lost in the crowd in Nilakkal. The child, who was shouting with folded hands in front of the police, finally waved at his father. The video shows the child being happy after meeting his father.

Fact Crescendo further contacted Sabarimala Pampa CI Mahesh who told us that “The news is completely false. The child seen in the video was crying in the bus because his father was late in returning from a shop outside. He was worried that his father would not be able to enter if the bus moved. Policemen were consoling the child outside. The boy was from Andhra Pradesh. When the father returned, the child thanked the police and went back happily. Also, the bus seen in the video is not a police van but a KSRTC bus. Places like Pampa, Nilakkal and Sannidhanam where pilgrims travel are semi-forest areas. The main concern of the security personnel, policemen is to guarantee the safety of the pilgrims. The police neither assaulted the pilgrims, nor registered any case nor detained them. These claims are completely false.”

From this we can be clear that the viral incident is actually about a child being away from his father and not about the atrocities and arrests of Hindu children in Kerala.

Conclusion- 

After checking the facts, we have found the claim made with the viral video to be false. The video of a child getting lost and searching for his father amid the crowd at Sabarimala temple is going viral giving it a communal angle. The claim of Kerala Police beating and arresting Hindu pilgrims in the video is completely false. The child was immediately reunited with his father.