This is NOT an instance of an Indian housing minister falling into a septic tank!

In the Asian region, politicians are usually highly criticized and mocked by the public. Several politicians are also considered corrupt and involved in various malicious activities. As a result, many misleading social media content insulting politicians gets viral. This is one of our investigations about viral posts stating a video depicts the Indian Housing minister falling into a septic tank.

Social Media Posts

A video is being spread on Facebook with the following statement.

“Minister of Housing in India Fell into a Septic Tank.

Facebook | Archived

Videos viral on Facebook.

This video went viral on WhatsApp, also.

Is she India's Housing Minister? So we decided to investigate the issue.

Fact Check

Using the Invid tool We-Verify Tool, we found details about the actual incident related to this video.

A BJP parliamentarian from Gujarat named Poonam Madam fell into a 10 feet sewage drain when the concrete slab beneath her gave away in Jamnagar in May 2016. The report reveals that the freak incident happened while she was talking to municipal officials over a drive to remove encroachers in Gujarat’s fifth-biggest city. The Hindustan Times report can be read here. Archived.

And media reports further reveal that she got some injuries but recovered.

India Today reported the incident on the 16^th of May 2016; the below video is breaking news.

Poonam Madam, Was she an Indian Minister of Housing in 2016?

Poonam Madam is a lady parliamentarian representing the Gujarat State of India; she was selected in 2014 as a BJP parliamentarian to the Lock Sabha and also reflected in subsequent elections. Still, she has been working as a Lock Sabha member but has yet to be a minister. Details about her political career can be read here. Archived.

Who is the Indian Housing Minister?

Former diplomat Shri Hardeep Singh Puri is the current Union Minister for Housing & Urban Affairs in India. And from 2014 to 2017, the Indian Minister of Housing was Venkaiah Naidu, a male and not a lady politician.

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Conclusion

Our investigation found that the viral video depicting a lady falling into a septic tank is not recent, and the freak accident happened in 2016. The lady, however, is not the housing minister of India. Instead, she is a Gujarat MP of BJP, Poonam Madam, who fell into a septic tank at Jamnagar while talking with municipal officials about urban development issues.