Video of a Buddhist monk from Sri Lanka falsely claimed as Hindu spiritual leader from India.
Claim
Here, whatever you do wearing the cloak of religion, everything is forgiven. Hardcore tussle strengthens Hinduism After Baba Asaram and Ram Rahim, another Baba in the field Jug Jug Jiya Ho Baba
Rating
Explanation
A photo of a person purported to be a religious leader is shared along with a video showing a man being caught with two women in a room is widely circulated. All three are half-naked in the video and they could be seen assaulted by the people recording the video. It is claimed that the person in the video is a Hindu spiritual leader or a priest from India.
The hindu priest sorry prostitute who divide India by religion pic.twitter.com/zY5vFaHMuf
— shajathali (@shajath67) July 27, 2023
The posts in Hindi are captioned “यहां धर्म का चोला पहन कर कुछ भी करो सब माफ है। हिंदुत्व को मजबूत करता कट्टरटनाटनी बाबा आसाराम और राम रहीम के बाद एक और बाबा मैदान में जुग जुग जिया हो बाबा” Some of the posts with such a claim can be seen here and here.
What is the truth?
When reverse searching the image with Google Lens we found multiple results mentioning him as ‘Guruji Maharaj’. When searching for the name, we found that he is Nirmal Singh Maharaj, an Indian spiritual leader who died in May 2007.
When searching for the details about the video in the viral post we found an article on the Sri Lankan website, Asian Mirror, carrying matching visuals from the viral video. This article dated 8, July 2023 reported that four youths have been arrested by Navagamuwa police in Sri Lanka for assaulting Pallegama Sumana Thero and two women in a residential house based on Sumana Thero’s complaint and they are out on bail later.
Pallegama Sumana Thero alleged that the youths entered the house and physically assaulted the mother and daughter while also causing damage to the property. The youths claimed that they visited the house after receiving information that Sumana Thero was engaging in inappropriate behavior with the two women. The article mentions Pallegama Sumana Thero as a ‘monk’ and it further states that he withdrew the complaint later and expressed a willingness to reconcile.
Another Sri Lankan website Daily Mirror mentioned Pallegama Sumana Thero as a Buddhist monk while reporting the order of the Minister to the police to arrest the youths who assaulted the monk and two women.
Conclusion
It is found that a video showing a Buddhist monk and two women in Sri Lanka is shared to falsely claim that he is a Hindu spiritual leader from India.
An image of Nirmal Singh Maharaj, an Indian spiritual leader who died in 2007 is being circulated along with the video in the context that he is the one seen in the viral video. But both are different people.
