Indian tribe practises ritual similar to ‘sati’? Nepal wedding video shared with false claim

A video of a woman who is dressed as a bride is making the rounds on social media. A group of people are seen carrying her in a palanquin on their shoulders while the woman is crying. It has been claimed that this video is from a tribe in India whose tradition mandates that if a groom dies, the bride is buried alive along with him.

‘Screen Mix’, an entertainment and media portal from the Middle East, made the same claim while sharing this video. This tweet has been viewed more than 60 lakh times. (Archived link)

Quoting Screen Mix’s tweet, Pakistani lawyer Mian Omar wrote that such traditions should be discouraged. Urging the United Nations to take cognizance of it, he added that such rituals were against humanity. (Archived link)

Jordan-based news agency ‘خبرني Khaberni’ also made the same claim while amplifying the footage. (Archived link)

A user named Abu Mohammad (ابومحمد) also tweeted the video with the same claim. (Archived link)

The clip is widespread on social media platforms.

Fact Check

Since this video is in Arabic, Alt News performed a search on Twitter using Arabic keywords related to the viral video with the help of Google Translate. We found a tweet by a user named ‘(إياد الحمود) @Eyaaaad‘, contradicting the viral claim and claiming that the clip was of a wedding being held following the traditions and customs of some tribes in the Baihang district of Nepal. The tweet also featured screenshots of some clips containing the TikTok username @laxu.sapkota.

Since TikTok is banned in India, we accessed the content of the (@laxu.sapkota) account with the help of a VPN. We found that the viral video was uploaded by this account recently.

Laxu Sapkota had included a link to a YouTube channel in his bio on TikTok. When we explored this YouTube channel, we found that the viral video had also been uploaded here on June 6, 2023. The title mentions that this is a video of a traditional wedding ceremony in Nepal.

[Video unavailable]

Laxu Sapkota has also uploaded this video on his Instagram account and added that this was a video of a traditional wedding ceremony in Nepal in which the girl is crying while leaving her home after the wedding.

Upon searching keywords related to the farewell on a palanquin in a Nepali wedding on YouTube, we found one such video in which a ritual similar to the viral video is being performed. In this video, the bride is being sent off in a palanquin.

To sum it up, several social media users shared the video of a traditional wedding ceremony in Nepal with the misleading claim that it is from a tribe in India where the wife is buried alive along with her husband when he passes away.