Maleficent Youtube Video Sparks Outrage Within Community

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The last week has our Community outraged as a misleading video went viral across social media platforms disparaging our community. The video (on youtube) claimed that Zoroastrianism promoted marriages amongst siblings! Hosted on a Youtube channel called, ‘Anup Ki Duniya’, the video shows glimpses of our navjote and lagan ceremonies with a male voiceover falsely proclaiming the same to be marriage rituals carried out between siblings. The video was published on 21^st June, 2017, and had gone unnoticed until the evening of 15^th September, 2018, when numerous community members voiced their objections in the comments sections of the video and demanded that it be pulled down, which has taken place.

Taking charge of the situation, three community activists, Rumy Zarir, Er. Neville Bahadur Broacha, and Er. Rukshad Panthaky, have taken legal action against the perpetrator. Broacha and Panthaky approached the Tardeo Police Station, and lodged a complaint letter that has been submitted to Senior Police Inspector, Sanjay Surve. “I have been visiting the police station since Saturday and have spoken to Surve and Police Sub-Inspector, Arjun Padvale who looks after the cyber-crime department at Tardeo Police station. They have provided us assurance and will soon take up the matter with the main cyber-crime branch at Bandra Kurla Complex (BKC),” said Broacha.

Rumy Zarir came across the video late on Friday night last week, and following his initial interaction with the on-duty Police Inspector at Gamdevi Police Station, he approached Senior Inspector, Gokulsingh Patil on 17^th September with a complaint letter, which was duly addressed and acknowledged by the Commissioner of Police, as well. “On 19^th September, I visited Gamdevi Police Station along with Arzan Ghadially, where PSI Kailas Bele noted down my statement. He has assured that the videos will be pulled down from Youtube at the earliest.”

On further investigation, similar videos sprouting such malicious and misleading content were discovered on four other Youtube channels – ‘Best Urdu Videos’ published on 27^th February, 2018 (https://youtu.be/PVKKqUKmy0g); ‘Abid TV’ published on 4^th March, 2018 (https://youtu.be/mP_aMc7edXc); ‘Simran Gil’ published on 5^th March, 2018 (https://youtu.be/phAqV7K5j5M); and ‘Islamic Knowledge’ published on 24^th July, 2018 (https://youtu.be/IPfcW0Ye3s8).

All five videos have been objected to in the letters submitted at Tardeo and Gamdevi Police Stations and a FIR will be registered within a couple of days.