Fact-checking organization Fact Watch has revealed that an Indian media outlet falsified a video depicting the immersion of Goddess Kali in West Bengal, India, as an attack on a temple in Bangladesh.
The organization marked the viral video, shared by the Indian media outlet RT India on X, as false.
RT India claimed that the video showed an attack on a temple of Goddess Kali in Bangladesh, but Fact Watch confirmed it was actually a video of the traditional immersion of a Kali idol in West Bengal, India.
To verify the origins of the video, Fact Watch, an independent entity affiliated with the University of Liberal Arts Bangladesh and managed by the Center for Critical and Qualitative Studies (CQS), conducted a thorough keyframe analysis.
Their search uncovered a video similar to the viral clip, uploaded on Tuesday, by a Facebook user named Binod Ghosh.
The caption of the original video explains that it features a centuries-old tradition of Kali Puja in Sultanpur village, East Burdwan, West Bengal.
According to this tradition, which occurs every 12 years, the village priests first break the little fingers of the 13-foot Kali idol, after which the rest of the idol is broken by villagers.
The broken pieces are then immersed, and a new idol is created for worship for the next 11 years.
Fact Watch also uncovered additional visuals of the event through keyword searches, showing a large number of participants joyfully engaging in the ritual.
A report published in The Statesman corroborated these details, stating that the tradition is over 600 years old.
Initially practiced by the Kamar community (similar to the Karmakar caste of Bengal), the ritual was later handed over to the Mondol family.
Furthermore, by comparing visuals of the Kali temple using Google Street View with the Facebook videos, Fact Watch confirmed that the temple is located in Sultanpur, West Bengal, and not in Bangladesh.
The organization also found no credible evidence to support claims that "any Hindu devotee present there was killed."
The fact-checking body concluded that the viral video is being falsely circulated to create a communal narrative, adding a misleading context to the incident.
"Considering all evidence, Fact Watch has marked the viral posts as false," the organization said.
