Is a woman robbed of her jewellery worth Rs 1.5 lakh at the Mahakumbh Mela? Know the truth

The viral video shows an older incident that occurred in Uttar Pradesh’s Hardoi in December 2024.

Mahakumbh Mela 2025 officially commenced on 13 January, 2025 continuing until 26 February, 2025 in Prayagraj, Uttar Pradesh. The mela is held every 12 years and attracts millions of pilgrims, saints, and tourists.

Amidst this, a video of a woman crying has gone viral on social media with the claim she was robbed of her jewellery worth Rs 1.5 lakh at Mahakumbh mela in Prayagraj. In the video the woman is heard saying, ‘Somebody pushed me; someone took that away.’  

Let’s check the truth

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Fact Check- 

We started our investigation with a reverse image search on google and the results led us to a similar video posted by Live Hindustan on its YouTube channel on 16 December, 2024. According to the video description, a mass wedding was held in Hardoi, where, despite police presence, a woman raised an alarm that someone snatched her gold necklace. We can see the viral video at the timestamp of 2:25 seconds.

Keeping this in mind, we conducted further keyword search and found a report by Dainik Bhaskar from December 2024 carrying the same video of a woman alleging a jewellery theft, stating that the incident happened at the ‘Mukhyamantri Vivah Yojana’ programme in Uttar Pradesh’s Hardoi. The woman seen in the video was identified as one Lakshmi Srivastava, who was attending her brother-in-law’s wedding during the Mass wedding event.

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Moving forward, we came across a report by a local media named Uttar Pradesh Times. The report also identified the woman as Lakshmi Srivastava and added that she was attending her brother-in-law’s wedding. The police registered a case but found the necklace at her home during the investigation. The woman later said that she had left the necklace at home by mistake and that there was no case of robbery. 

The Hardoi Police also shared the woman’s statement that she found her necklace at her own home on 15 December, 2024 on their official twitter handle.

Based on these evidences, we can understand that the viral video is one month old and not related to the Prayagraj Mahakumbh. An old video from Hardoi has been shared to falsely allege a jewellery theft at Mahakumbh.

Conclusion- 

Fact crescendo found the claim made along with the viral video to be False. The viral video shows an older incident that occurred in Uttar Pradesh’s Hardoi in December 2024. This is not related with the ongoing Maha Kumbh Mela.