Adeeb’s family is close to former union minister and RJD leader late Taslimuddin’s family. He describes himself as a non-political person. When he heard of RJD’s Sarfraz Alam’s victory in the polls, he couldn’t stop his joy, borrowed his mother’s green ‘dupatta’ and went out. Shahzad Alam, another accused was trying to do Facebook live. He asked Adeeb to confirm whether they were doing that right. He claims they raised a slogan ‘Kitnon kariyo baap-baap, Phir Bhi jeetiyo Lalten Chhaap’ (No matter how much you remember your father, lantern wins). He came home and went to bed; little did they know a moment of joy would come back to haunt him as a nightmare. A video of Sultan Azam ‘Banni’, Shahzad Alam and Adeeb raising pro-Pakistan slogan had gone viral on social media by that night and it was all over the news. Adeeb was scared and behind the bars by March 21. He was granted bail after 65 days on May 25. His next hearing is on June 18 and families of Shahzad and Sultan hope to get bail on the day.

Somi is second of three siblings; the elder brother manages a coaching institute in the city and younger sister is in school. Adeeb runs the family’s water supply business since his father was paralyzed two years ago. His mother extols ‘ek din mein gaadi chalaane seekh gya tha beta’ (my son learnt driving trolley truck just in a day). His father and uncle are proud that Somi took over the business without any delay and does not hesitate to deliver water cans himself to the customers. Before his arrest, the family used to deliver water cans to 150 homes and offices. But in his absence, they hired a staff but the number of customers has come down to 50. Legal procedures and treatment of Areeb’s father have financially deprived the family. Father Nawab admits they are under the debt of around Rs 5 lakh, while Sultan’s family has a debt of around Rs. 3 lakhs since after his arrest, their mobile recharge shop remains closed mostly.

Somi is multi-talented but confused about career decisions as any millennial stepping out of school would be. Spending 65 days in jail has cost him a lot. He was selected to play for his city in Bihar Cricket Association’s Hayman Trophy and missed the selections for Araria U-19 cricket team. He continued his love for cricket inside the jail and added playing volleyball to his extra-curricular skills. He couldn’t sit for Aligarh Muslim University’s medical entrance exam. He wanted to do modelling and try his luck in acting – his Instagram account is a testimony to that.

Along with his friends Masoom, Ahmad, Krishna and 8 others, Adeeb wanted to start an entertainment start-up owing to the success of their YouTube channel ‘Pagla Billa’, which is not available for public view now. They make music videos with the theme of harmony and brotherhood. In one of their videos ‘Yaara Teri Yaari ko,’ the group can be seen praying together in a temple and mosque. They were suggested by friends and relatives to delete the videos after the incident. Ahmad agrees ‘we were very scared; I left the town for many days’. Masoom who is the director and manages the channel differs saying ‘he was irritated by followers’ demand for more videos’. The group claims they have turned Araria into Hollywood – ‘now there are many YouTube channels making such videos, a group called ‘Bihari Billa’ copied our theme, luck favoured them and look their video has more than a million views.’ A hoarding hangs from the first building in Adeeb’s street asking people to subscribe to ‘Bihari Billa’.

He is unsure of the many career options he had thought of after what he went through. Now he wants to join the Indian Navy and his mother seconds that with a list of all virtues – from height to his personality. Parents are scared for Adeeb, they don’t allow him to go away from their eyes even for delivering water cans.

Araria MP Sarfraz Alam calls the video ‘fake’ but wants to wait for the forensic report and court procedure. However, Alam admits the three youngsters were punished for RJD’s victory in the election. Similarly, fact-checking website Alt News’ founder Pratik Sinha’s audio analysis raises many suspicions of the authenticity of the video, but he restrains from calling it ‘fake’ before ‘a thorough forensic analysis’.

Courtesy: Two Circles

The post How Araria’s ‘Fake’ Viral Video has meant 65 Days in Jail for Adeeb Raza appeared first on SabrangIndia.

However, fact checking websites like altnews have claimed that the video, which became viral and on the basis of which the people were arrested, is doctored.

The video seemingly has the accused shouting “anti-India” and “pro-Pakistan” slogans after the declaration of the by-poll results on Wednesday.

The District Magistrate Himanshu Sharma said, “Two persons named in the FIR — Mohammad Shahzad and Mohammad Sultan — have been arrested. The third accused, Mohammad Abid, will be nabbed soon” They were arrested after the SHO of Araria town police lodged an FIR against a group of persons — three named, the rest unidentified — under various sections of the IPC and IT Act.
 
However, altnews website claimed, “Even a casual look a the video will make it apparent that there are serious issues with lip sync in the video” They also claimed that at a certain point in the video the background noise becomes zero which raises initial doubts. Further there is no audio-video sync. Illustrating that the video isn’t reliable, they have suggested for the examination of the video by a certified forensic laboratory for its authenticity observations necessitate that the video be examined by a certified forensic laboratory for its authenticity.

On similar lines, the leader of Opposition in the Bihar Assembly, Tejashwi Yadav said, “Let the matter be thoroughly investigated. Videos that go viral are not always authentic. Moreover, those named as accused may not necessarily be our party workers”

He also alleged that as per his conversations with Alam, he had told him that no victory celebrations were taking place and that BJP is already running a smear campaign against them, saying that RJD’s victory is a boost to terrorist activities.
 
Related Article
1) How Social Media, TV Use Fake News: Basirhat Riots

The post ‘Anti-national’ youth arrested in Bihar based on ‘doctored video’? appeared first on SabrangIndia.

Now a dangerous misuse of such fake videos has again come to light.
 
The same fake video has been made viral a third time, each time with a different narrative. Alt News had previous written about how a video was circulated as a Hindu man being killed by Muslims in Nawada, Bihar. The same video was then made viral as a Hindu man being killed by Muslims in West Bengal. The same video is now being circulated a third time as a CRPF Jawan being killed by Kashmiri students.
 
 

The image above shows how this message was circulated on WhatsApp and made its way to Facebook. Just this one post has been shared more than 35,000 times on Facebook. The text of the WhatsApp message says:
अभी अभी मरे एक मित्र ने वीडियो सेंड की है जो श्रीनगर में पड़ता है। येह आज की वीडियो है ।कृपया इसे किसी न्यूज़ चैनल तक पहुंचआ दे। कश्मीरी स्टूडेंट CRPF जवान को मार रहे है। दोस्तों ईनसानीयत के नाते आपसे हाथ जोड़कर विनती है की यह विड़ीयो ज्यादा से ज्यादा गृपो में भेजना है। कल शाम तक हर एक नयुज चैनल पे आना चाहीऐ।

Translation: Just a little while ago, a friend of mine who studies in Srinagar sent this video. This is today’s video. Please make sure that it reaches news channels. Kashmiri Students are beating up a CRPF Jawan. Friends, for the sake of humanity, I plead before you to send this video to as many groups as possible so that every news channel covers this video by this evening.

 
The video also made its way to YouTube with same narration as seen on Facebook/WhatsApp posts.

 
What is the truth? On April 1, 2017, unknown assailants killed Abu Syed and seriously injured Md Ali, two men who were wanted for the murder of Awami League leader Monir Hossain Sarkar. This incident happened in Titas subdivision of Coomilla district in Bangladesh. The issue was also covered by the local news website called Coomilla-r-Kagoj which translates to “Coomilla’s Newspaper”.
 

The video of the incident was uploaded by a Bangladeshi resident to Youtube on April 2nd.

One might ask, how is that the same video becomes viral over and over again with different narratives? The reason is that there is no one to reach the truth to the people. There’s a raging epidemic of fake videos but no one wants to do anything about it. Those who own big newspapers and big TV channels do not consider it their responsibility to inform their viewers about these fake videos. Facebook Inc that owns both Facebook and WhatsApp platforms doesn’t want to take up the responsibility either. And the Government? Well, less said, the better.
 
 
 

The post Again Whatsapp is Used to Circulate a Fake Video: Bangladesh Video being circulated as Kashmiris killing CRPF Jawan appeared first on SabrangIndia.