Fact Check: Nepal communication minister Prithvi Gurung’s house torched? Yes, but viral video misleads
A video has been circulating online, claiming it shows Nepal’s communication minister pleading with protestors to spare him and his house.
By - Md Mahfooz Alam
Claim:The video shows Nepal’s Minister for Communication and Information Technology, Prithvi Subba Gurung, pleading with protestors to spare him and not to burn his house.
Fact:The claim is misleading. The minister’s house was set ablaze by protestors, but the viral video does not show Gurung.
Hyderabad: Amid the ongoing unrest in Nepal, a video has been circulating on social media showing a man pleading with people while a yellow-painted house burns in the background with smoke billowing from it.
The video is being shared with the claim that the man is Prithvi Subba Gurung, Nepal’s Minister for Communication and Information Technology, allegedly pleading with citizens to spare him and not torch his house.
An X user shared the video with the caption, “This is the Kabogo of Nepal (Prithvi Subba Gurung, Nepal’s Minister for Communication) pleading with citizens to spare him and his corruption-acquired mansion. Sorry, boss, it burns like others.”
Fact Check
NewsMeter found that the claim is misleading as the video does not show Prithvi Subba Gurung.
The video has a TikTok watermark with the text ‘roshanbhandari7721’.
Using a VPN network, we accessed the account on TikTok and found that the video was posted on September 10. The Nepali caption, referencing the ongoing movement, stated “Now it’s the youth’s turn” with the hashtag #my_country_nepal.
Notably, the original post did not claim that the video shows Prithvi Subba Gurung pleading.
We also found another video by the same user clarifying that the person in the viral video is not pleading for his own house, but rather asking protesters not to torch his neighbour’s house.
While the user did not reveal any names, this clarification directly contradicts the claim that Minister Gurung is pleading with protesters to spare his own residence.
Do the publicly available images of Gurung match the man in the viral video?
We checked the images and videos on Prithvi Subba Gurung’s verified Facebook page and found that they do not match the person seen pleading in the viral video.
Did the protester burn Gurung’s house?
Nepali media outlets such as The Himalayan and Khabar Hub reported on September 9 that the private residence of Gurung in Sunakothi, Lalitpur, was set ablaze amidst the nationwide Gen Z-led protests against corruption.
The reports also mentioned that the police reported that demonstrators initially pelted stones at the minister’s house before the situation escalated into arson. There was some vandalism and a small fire incident, but the situation was brought under control.
Hence, we conclude that the video does not show Nepal's Minister for Communication and Information Technology pleading with protestors to spare him and not to burn his house. The claim is misleading.
