Fact Check: Sri Lankan monk sex scandal falsely attributed to Hindu spiritual leader

Hyderabad: Several social media users have shared a video of two women and a man in various stages of undress, caught inside a room in a compromising state. The video is shot by persons who harass, abuse and snatch the clothes from the three persons.

The viral video is being widely circulated on social media with the claim that the man in the viral video is Guruji Nirmal Singh Maharaj. Taking a dig at Hinduism, the caption to the viral post reads, “Hindu hain hum...We are hindus. (sic)”

Is the man in the viral video Guruji Nirmal Singh Maharaj from Punjab? Let’s find out.

Fact Check

NewsMeter found the claim to be false as the viral video is from Sri Lanka.

We started our investigation by performing a keyword search to find the whereabouts of Nirmal Singh Maharaj. Through our search, we found out that Guruji Nirmal Singh Maharaj died in 2007. Therefore, it is unlikely that the man seen in the viral video could be him.

On performing a simple reverse image search with the keyframes of the viral video, we found a report published on July 8, 2023, on a Sri Lankan news website Asian Mirror titled “Sex Scandal Involving Monk and Two Women: Four Youths Arrested over Assault; Complaint Withdrawn, Reconciliation Sought” along with the screengrabs from the viral video.

The report identified the man in the video as Pallegama Sumana Thero, a Buddhist monk from Sri Lanka. We also found a Facebook post along with similar pictures with the same narrative, which further confirmed that the viral video does not show any Hindu guru.

Hence, it is evident that the man seen in the viral video is not a Hindu spiritual leader but a Sri Lankan monk.