A nine-second long video clip is has gone viral on social media, showing a man assaulting a puffed rice vendor. In the video, the man is seen overturning the box hanging from the snack seller’s neck and pouring all the food items onto the vendor’s face before they scatter onto the street. As this purported attack unfolds, the vendor stares at the man helplessly.
The video was posted by X user Alka Maurya on September 16 and has garnered more than 2,85,000 views and shared over 1,500 times till publication time. The caption of the post, translated from Hindi, reads: “(He) must be feeling so proud after doing something like this.” (Archive)
कितना गर्व महसूस कर रहा होगा ऐसे करके हैं ना …… pic.twitter.com/F6upi4I2ZD
— Alka Maurya (@MauryaAlka76391) September 16, 2026
Apart from Maurya, film actor Kamaal R Khan posted the same video with the caption: “How will you fix this mentality which has developed in last 10 years. India can’t be fixed now.” (Archive)
How will you fix this mentality which has developed in last 10 years. India can’t be fixed now. pic.twitter.com/o2T2AJzGoj
— KRK (@kamaalrkhan) September 17, 2026
Other social media users circulated the viral clip with similar captions, condemning the man seen purportedly attacking the vendor.
As a billboard visible in the video reads ‘Welcome to Patna Junction’, the Patna police was tagged in the comment section of certain posts, requesting them to take stringent action against the man who allegedly assaulted the vendor.
Fact Check
To verify the authenticity of the viral video clip, we ran reverse image search on several relevant keyframes. It led us to a video posted by content creator Sonu Paswan on Instagram. With 1,79,000 followers, he posts scripted videos highlighting the helpless condition of the working class people in India. Paswan has a social media presence on Facebook and YouTube as well. And according to his social media bios, he is from Darbhanga, Bihar.
In all of his videos, accessible on his Facebook page, Paswan himself can be seen playing different “poor characters” being harassed and attacked by others as he helplessly accepts his fate.
On September 18, Friday, Paswan posted a video on his Instagram page, where he clarified that he enacts emotional scenes on poverty as ‘content’ on his social media platforms. He clarifies that the viral clip does not depict a real attack on him, but is in fact a prepared skit. “I want to tell you that in the video you are seeing, the vendor is me and the man who is attacking me is part of my team. I want to let you know that we, as a team, make emotional videos on poverty. I request you to take this video purely as entertainment, and not believe that this is real,” he said.
The caption of this video reads, translated from Hindi, “Because we make emotional videos on the poor…You all give me so much love…but you guys have taken this clip to heart.
I know I have hurt you guys with this video. Please delete the video from your channel…I request you not to share this video any further.”
View this post on Instagram
After the clip started going viral and attracted significant backlash, on September 17, most of his videos on YouTube and all of his previous videos on Instagram had to be deleted. In the aforementioned video, Paswan urges audiences to not share the viral clip and excerbate his situation even further. “I request you to not share the clip on your personal profiles, please do this much for your brothers,” he said. He shared the same clarification on his YouTube page.
Moreover, Paswan posted videos of the guy who is acting as the attacker in the video, also clarifying the viral clip is indeed a skit, on his Instagram and YouTube pages. “The video you guys are watching and getting emotional and taking to heart is just our content…its not real…please stop roasting this video. Because of you [sharing the viral clip as real] all my efforts have gone to waste, all my videos, over 300 videos…I have had to delete them all. I request you to keep supporting and loving us,” he states in the video.
View this post on Instagram
Given that their skit went viral, misleadingly as a real incident, the content creators said they received backlash and trolling, compelling them to remove their previous videos. At present, Paswan’s Instagram page only features the two clarification videos and his YouTube page features the same. However, his Facebook still displayed his earlier content. The description of his Facebook page, translated from Hindi, also reads: “I make emotional videos on poverty.”
True to the description, Paswan’s Facebook page contains videos similar in theme to the viral video. In these videos, visibly destitute people or poor vendors are seen being humiliated or suffering at the hands of others, while accepting their fate.
Paswan can be identified acting in all of these videos, and a visual match can be established, indicating that he was indeed the person seen in the viral video. Thus, it can be concluded that a scripted video made by a content creator has gone viral, leading netizens to falsely believe that it depicts a real incident of attack on a puffed rice vendor.
