By Archis Chowdhury
A video, showing people misbehaving with the staff of a restaurant, is being shared with the claim that it shows the owner of a restaurant in Pinjore, Panchkula, Haryana, being confronted for making biryani with sewage water.
BOOM found this claim to be false; Panchkula police stated that viral video shows people associated with the right-wing group Bajrang Dal misbehaving with the staff of the biryani restaurant, after neighbouring shops complained about the restaurant draining dirty water on the streets.
The viral video, of 2:06 in length, shows people abusing the staff in the biryani restaurant. Meanwhile, the person recording tries to show how the restaurant is draining the streets with dirty water using a motorised pump.
The video was made viral by right-leaning Twitter handle MeghUpdates, who added an English caption that said, "Haryana: Shama Biryani, Railway underpass, Kalka road, pinjore - caught on camera selling Biryani made from gutter water."
The same video also been shared on Facebook with the viral claim.
Fact Check
BOOM scanned news reports using relevant keywords to verify the viral claim, but we could not find any credible news report on such an incident.
We then did a keyword search on Facebook and found a video uploaded on August 16, 2023, on a Facebook page named Kalka Pinjore Live, which had visuals matching those from the viral video.
The caption accompanying the video states, “Some workers of Bajrang Dal had complained to the Pinjore police station about littering at Shama Dhaba near Railway Under Bridge on Pinjore Kalka Road. Suwan Ali, the owner of Shama Dhaba, apologized in writing for this whole matter and also promised not to spread filth."
However, the entire caption made no mention of cooking biryani in sewage water.
We reached out to Swan Ali, the owner of the restaurant, who told us, “This whole matter occurred on the night of 14 August. Actually the people present in the shop were cleaning the shop after finishing work. During this, they were storing the dirty water in a tank built on the ground as there was no drain nearby so that later they could drain it through a tanker. But due to the high amount of water, he drained some of the water on the road with the help of a motor. Then some people associated with Bajrang Dal went there and misbehaved with the people working at our hotel. However, this time we accepted our mistake."
We then reached out to Karambir, SHO of Pinjore police station, who also refuted the viral claim.
“This is not a case of selling biryani cooked in dirty water. In fact, some shops in the neighborhood had a problem with the biryani shop due to the discharge of contaminated water on the streets. During that time some workers of Bajrang Dal misbehaved with the people working at the restaurant. But later both the parties were made to sit down and resolve the matter," he said.
