Fact check: do not fall for this ‘missing girl’ video; she is reunited with her family

A heartbreaking video of a sobbing girl child allegedly found by some beggars in Mangalore, Karnataka, was shared by Bollywood actress Divya Dutta.

Dutta endorsed the video posted on March 3, 2021 as: ‘This little girl was found with a bunch of beggars in Mangalore, S. India. She calls herself Sonal Bipin Patel. The beggars claim she was found in a train coming from Mumbai. Please forward it as much as possible. Maybe she can be reunited with her parents. ‘

The video shows a man holding the girl while another man tells the whole situation. The story in Hindi translates as: ‘Everyone watching this video is paying attention. Some people brought this girl to the Gurdwara. The girl’s age is 3 to 4 years. Please share this video as much as possible because the girl is anxious and crying. Some people in Jaitpur village are holding her and waiting for her relatives to come here to pick her up. The parents of this girl should come here with her ID proof. We will not hand her over without seeing the ID proof. ”

The archived version of this Post can be seen here.

Many Facebook users also shared this video with the same Mangalore Beggars story.

India Today Anti Fake News War Room (AFWA) found that the girl was separated from her family in the video and found by people in the Jaitpur Gurdwara in New Delhi in 2020. Fortunately, she was reunited with her family on the same day. she was lost. The story of the Mangalore beggars posted with the video is unrelated to the little girl and has been on social media for the past few years.

The 36-second video is pretty viral on Facebook and Twitter and made people believe that the girl in the video is still not reunited with her family.

The same video was shared in November 2020 with the allegation that this girl was found in Indirapuram Gurdwara.

AFWA investigation

During our investigation, we found that the girl in the viral video in 2020 was separated from the family in the Jaitpur Village area in New Delhi. While she was in a state after being accidentally separated from her family, some people took her to the Jaitpur Gurdwara committee members. The members of the committee immediately made an announcement and posted the viral video on the WhatsApp groups of Jaitpur. Fortunately, the girl’s family approached the Gurdwara committee the same day and took her with them after proving a valid proof.

We found a Facebook post who stated that the girl was found in the video in Jaitpur Village Gurdwara, Delhi. The narrator in the viral video also says the same.

We contacted the management of Jaitpur Gurdwara who confirmed to us that the viral video was shot in the Jaitpur Gurudwara in 2020.

“Jaitpur Gurdwara Management Committee last year organized a camp related to the upcoming Sikh Gurdwara Election Committee in Delhi (DSGMC). At the same time, some boys from the surrounding area brought this little girl to us. We immediately made an absent announcement on the speaker. We also made a video of the girl and shared it on the local WhatsApp groups of Jaitpur. “Somehow the video went viral with false allegations and is still being spread,” Sandeep Singh Rai, board member of Jaitpur Gurdwara, told India Today.

Sandeep told us that the narrator in the viral video is Harjeet Singh, another member of the Jaitpur Gurdwara Steering Committee and a candidate of the Delhi Sikh Gurdwara Steering Committee.

Harjeet Singh said: ‘After the missing announcement and the video on WhatsApp, the girl’s uncle approached us and asked that the girl be kept in custody. To be doubly sure, we asked him to get the girls’ mom. After this, the girl’s mother came and we handed the girl over to her after she saw her ID. ”

The full statement of Harjeet Singh can be seen in the video below.

However, we could not independently verify the identity (name, address) of the girl in the viral video.

The story of the Mangalore beggars

We found it the a story of beggars in Mangalore who found a lost girl on a train in Mumbai shared with another girl’s video in the year 2019. India Today’s AFWA team has unleash the claim then.

So it is clear that these Mangalore beggars’ story has been on the internet for at least the last two years. However, we can not be sure whether such an incident took place in Mangalore or not.

So it is clear that the video currently with the Mangalore beggars’ story actually comes from the Jaitpur village of Gurdwara in New Delhi. And the little girl in the video was reunited with her family the same day she got lost.