TechPana Fact Check: Viral Thresher Accident Video Is from India, Not Nepalgunj - Details Inside
चैत २७, २०८१ ९:३४
Kathmandu, April 9 (Hikmat Acharya/Shiva Basnet, TechPana Fact Check)- A video claiming that a person from Nepalgunj died after falling into a thresher while threshing wheat has been going viral on Facebook since Monday. TechPana Fact Check has discovered that the video is not from Nepalgunj but from Madhya Pradesh, India.
CLAIM
A video circulating on Facebook since Monday, April 7, 2025, claims that “a woman from Nepalgunj died after falling into a thresher while threshing wheat.” A Facebook user named Sunil Khadka posted the video on Monday, writing, “A woman has died in Nepalgunj after falling into a machine while threshing wheat 😥,” showing a graphic scene of someone trapped in a thresher. Watch original video and archived video. As of the time of this writing, the video has over 280,000 views, 733 reactions, 141 comments, and over 750 shares.
Similarly, a Facebook page named ‘Kohalpur Gallery’ uploaded the same video with the caption, “A woman has died after falling into a machine while threshing wheat.” See original link and archived link. As of the time of this writing, that post has over 75K views, over 200 reactions, 34 comments, and 109 shares.
In addition, a Facebook user named Sameet DC also shared the video and caption. Watch original video and archived video. That video has over 100K views, over 743 reactions, 77 comments, and 120 shares.
Searching for keywords like “Nepalgunj” and “thresher” in Devanagari on Facebook reveals hundreds of videos, with most using the same caption.
INVESTIGATION
The video claiming “a woman died in Nepalgunj after falling into a thresher while threshing wheat” started being shared by Facebook users since Monday. Suspecting the scene didn't look like Nepal, we guessed the video wasn't from Nepal. First, we searched Google for keywords like ‘thresher’ and ‘woman's death’ in Devanagari. After finding no news reports about it, we contacted the District Police Office, Banke.
Deepak Patali, spokesperson and Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) at the District Police Office, Banke, said that such an incident was not known to them. “We have not received any such information. I also watched the video. The place doesn't look like Nepalgunj. It's probably from India,” said DSP Patali.
Then, we downloaded the video, extracted keyframes, and performed reverse image searches on Google, Bing, Yandex, TinyEye, Baidu, etc. We found that Instagram pages operated from India had posted the video. An Instagram page called News Matrix posted the video. See original link and archived link. The post said, “🤯😳A Horrifying News From BadarwasNH46 A Man Chopped by Bonfiglioli Squalo 2000 Ton Vertical Shear Metal Cutter | Badarwas | NH46 | Madhya Pradesh | 4, April, 2025 |”
After finding the location name “Madhya Pradesh Baradarwas” and the incident date “April 4, 2025” in that post, we searched for an incident on that date in that location. During this, we found a news report titled 'शिवपुरी में दिल दहला देने वाली घटना, गेहूं काट रहा मजदूर थ्रेशर में समाया, शरीर के हुए सैंकड़ों टुकड़े - SHIVPURI FARMER STUCKS IN THRESHER’ (Heart-wrenching incident in Shivpuri, laborer cutting wheat gets caught in thresher, body torn into hundreds of pieces - SHIVPURI FARMER STUCKS IN THRESHER) prepared by ETV Bharat's Madhya Pradesh Bureau.
According to the news report, the machine was a thresher, not a metal cutting machine. Also, contrary to what Nepali Facebook users claimed, it was a man who died, not a woman. The victim was 22-year-old Devendra Kevat. While threshing wheat, the young man's hand got caught in the thresher. As the machine was running at high speed, it could not be stopped, and the young man got trapped and died.
ETV Bharat used a feature photo combining a photo of the thresher and two photos of people gathered at the scene. Although the place, incident, and context were confirmed, we compared the keyframes of the viral video with the photos from ETV Bharat to rule out the possibility of it being a different video. During this comparison, we found that the truck and most of the women visible in the video matched. This confirmed that the incident happened there.
CLAIM
A woman died in Nepalgunj after falling into a thresher while threshing wheat.
CLAIMANTS
Sunil Khadka, Kohalpur Gallery, Sameer DC, Sandeep Rijal, and other Facebook users.
FACT
The incident in which a person died after falling into a thresher while threshing wheat did not happen in Nepalgunj, Banke, but in Madhya Pradesh, India. The deceased was not a woman but a 22-year-old male laborer.
CONCLUSION
TechPana Fact Check concludes that the incident in which a person died after falling into a thresher while threshing wheat, as claimed by Sunil Khadka, Kohalpur Gallery, Sameer DC, Sandeep Rijal, and other Facebook pages and users, did not happen in Nepalgunj, Banke, Nepal, but in Madhya Pradesh, India. While it was claimed that a woman died after falling into the thresher, the deceased was a 22-year-old man. The video from India has been shared with misleading claims that it is from Nepal.
Disclaimer: This article is translated from the Nepali version of TechPana's Fact Check. Please make sure to check the original link.
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