A video is being widely shared on social media claiming that a Korean man dressed as a pregnant woman was harassed by a group of young men while testing women's safety in India.
Verdict: FALSE!
A video has been going viral across WhatsApp, X (formerly Twitter) and Instagram for the past few days. The clip shows a person later identified as South Korean YouTuber Sumin - first participating in Holi celebrations, and then dressed as a pregnant woman being approached and touched by men. The caption spreading with it reads: "Korean youth disguised as a pregnant woman attacked in India."
The video sparked massive outrage online, with many users calling it proof of the poor safety situation for women in India.
But the video is not what it claims to be.
What Is the Truth?
A reverse image search of keyframes from the viral video revealed that the person featured in it is Sumin, a South Korean national associated with the YouTube channel "I'm Sumin", which uploads travel vlogs from different countries as well as social experiment videos.
The viral video was created by combining two completely unrelated videos featuring Sumin. The first video shows him participating in Holi celebrations as a man in Varanasi, India, in May 2025. The second video shows him conducting a social experiment in Dhaka, Bangladesh, dressed as a pregnant woman and that was filmed in April 2026.
https://x.com/WONGthink/status/2063141430269296767
The harassment footage is from Bangladesh, not India. And the India footage is just Sumin enjoying Holi as himself.
What Did Sumin Himself Say?
Sumin came forward and clarified that the video of him dressed as a pregnant woman was filmed in Bangladesh, not India. He also clarified that during the Holi festival footage from India, he appeared as himself and claims that he was cross-dressing or pretending to be a pregnant woman simply because he has long hair are entirely baseless.
Sumin further stated that some people were deliberately spreading hatred against India by editing and misrepresenting videos recorded on different occasions, and that he would take legal action against those responsible.
How Was the Video Edited to Mislead?
Someone took two separate clips from two different countries and stitched them together to make it look like one incident. The Holi clip from Varanasi gave it the "India" setting, while the Bangladesh pregnancy experiment footage was used to create the false impression of harassment happening in India.
Since the videos were recorded in different countries and different contexts entirely, they do not show Sumin being harassed while testing women's safety in India. The claim is FALSE.
Why Does This Matter?
This is a textbook case of how edited videos are used to spread misinformation and stoke outrage. A clip filmed in Bangladesh was deliberately repackaged as an India incident with the clear intent of damaging India's image internationally.
Before sharing any viral video, always check the source, look for the original creator's statement, and verify where the footage was actually filmed.
Source: Factly.in | YouTuber Sumin's official statement