An unrelated video from March 2026, of Tamil Nadu Chief Minister C. Joseph Vijay visiting the Chennai Secretariat to meet the State Chief Election Commissioner over denied permissions for Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam (TVK) campaign events is being falsely shared as him evading media questions on the Coimbatore sexual assault and murder case.
The police arrested two men on May 23, 2026, in connection with the sexual assault and murder of a 10-year-old girl whose body was found near the bund of Kannampalayam tank in Sulur, Coimbatore district. K. Karthi (33) and his accomplice R. Mohan (30) of Pallapalayam near Coimbatore were arrested and sent to judicial remand reported The Hindu. A video from the police press briefing on the case went viral and drew criticism as the West Zone Inspector General of Police (IG) R.V. Ramya Bharathi and other senior officers were seen smiling and laughing while addressing the media.
The Claim:
The video is being shared on X, claiming that Vijay is avoiding questions from the media about the Sulur rape and murder case.
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What We Found:
1) Original Video
We ran a reverse image search on Google Lens which search results showed that the original video was posted by Tamil news outlet Polimer News.
The video was posted on March 28 with the caption stating that a crowd had gathered to greet Vijay when he arrived at the Chennai Secretariat to meet the State Chief Election Commissioner over denied permissions for his party events during the assembly election campaign. The video pre-dates the Coimbatore case.
We also found several other news outlets that had carried the same video in March.
2) Vijay's statement on Coimbatore case
CM Vijay's posted a statement on X on May 23 condemning the abduction, sexual assault, and murder of the minor girl and offered his condolences to the relatives of the family. He also stated that he has directed the police to take the necessary action and file a chargesheet against the two accused arrested in the case.
