By Hazel Gandhi
The video of a donation box in a temple filled to the brim with money is viral online with the false claim that the video is from Ayodhya's newly inaugurated Ram temple.
BOOM found that the claims are false, the video is from Rajasthan's Shri Sanwariya Seth temple and is unrelated to the Ram temple in Ayodhya.
The Ram temple consecration took place on January 22, 2024, in the presence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Uttar Pradesh's Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh's chief Mohan Bhagwat. An event celebrated by Hindus across the country, the inauguration also led to violence and disturbances in at least six parts of India, including Maharashtra's Mira Road suburb, Telangana's Narayanpet district, and Khrima village in Bihar.
The video shows a group of people collecting heaps of money and putting it in a nearly full donation box. A caption on Facebook reads, "The donation box was filled with banknotes within half a day on the very first day in Ram Temple in “Ayodhya Dham.” This is called TEMPLE ECONOMY. How many schools and hospitals can be built?"
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The video is circulating with a similar caption on X.
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FACT CHECK
BOOM found that the video is from Rajasthan's Shri Sanwariya Seth temple and is unrelated to Ayodhya's Ram temple.
We ran a reverse image search of some key frames from the viral video on Google and found a post on Instagram by a handle @sanwaliya_seth_1007 on January 16, 2024. The post matched the viral video and was shared with the caption, "🌹Shri Sanwaliya Seth🌹:- This time a record amount of 12 crore 69 lakh cash donations were collected."
(Original text in Hindi: "🌹श्री सांवलिया सेठ🌹:-इस बार रिकॉर्ड 12 करोड़ 69 लाख नकद दान राशि निकली")
According to this post, the video shows the donation box from Sanwariya Seth's temple in Rajasthan.
We scanned this profile further and found that it belonged to Nitin Vaishnav, whose bio stated that he was a priest at the temple.
We also found that the man seen collecting the money in the viral video is Nitin Vaishnav.
The Sanwariya Seth temple is dedicated to Lord Krishna and is located in Rajasthan's Chittorgarh district.
We also found news reports from local outlets Sach Bedhadak and ABP News which carried information about the temple's donations. According to these reports, the donation boxes are opened on every Chaturdashi, or the 14th day of the month according to the Hindu calendar. The reports also stated that the temple receives crores of rupees in donations. Other media reports suggested that the temple manages to collect record donations each time.
In October 2022, ahead of the Rajasthan state elections, Prime Minister Narendra Modi held a public meeting in Chittorgarh after which he visited this temple as well. We then looked for videos of the PM's visit to the temple and found a video from his official YouTube channel shared on October 2, 2022 with the title 'PM Modi pays a visit to Sawariya Seth Mandir in Chittorgarh'.
Below is a comparison between the viral video and the video from PM Modi's YouTube channel:
We then looked for more information about donations made towards the Ram Temple. This Zee News report stated that till date, Rs 3200 crores were donated for the construction of the temple in Ayodhya. Another report by News18 mentioned that on the day of the temple's inauguration, donations of about 3.17 crore were collected.
We also looked for photos of the donation box in the Ram temple and found a picture shared by Aaj Tak in a news report published on January 12, 2024. The donation box in this report was clearly different from the one seen in the viral video.
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