Yet Another Cooked Up ‘Kerala Story’: Here Is The Fact.

A video went viral online with a caption claiming that a school in Kerala had suspended a student for wearing an Ayyappa mala, a sacred rosary worn by devotees during the period of spiritual austerity before visiting the Sabarimala temple. However, the video is not from Kerala, and the claim is false.

Claim:

An X user shared a video on November 5, 2025, with a caption, “SHOCKING: In Kerala, a Hindu student was suspended for wearing an Ayyappa mala. Local Hindu activists confronted the school teacher. Police have still not responded.” The post received 9,599 views, 1,500 likes, and 632 reposts.​

A social media user on Facebook also shared the video with a similar caption in Hindi. 

Here are the facts:

We investigated the viral claim and found no credible news reports from Kerala supporting it. Moreover, the people in the video appear to be speaking Telugu, indicating that the incident likely did not occur in Kerala. 

An in-depth analysis of the video’s keyframes revealed an abbreviation on an office locker reading “P.R.T.U.T.S,” which stands for Progressive Recognized Teachers Union, Telangana State—further confirming that the video is from a school in Telangana, not Kerala.

News media outlets have recently reported similar incidents from both Telangana and Andhra Pradesh. 

A Thorough examination clarifies that the incident in the viral video occurred in Telangana and not Kerala. Hence, the viral claim is false.