Video Of Women Assaulted In Uttar Pradesh Revived As West Bengal

A disturbing video of a group of men groping two women in Uttar Pradesh has resurfaced with false claims that it is an incident from West Bengal. The captions also give a communal angle to the incident and claims that Muslims assaulted a Hindu woman.

BOOM fact-checked the video multiple times, when it went viral with similar false claims and found that the incident is from Rampur, Uttar Pradesh.

The Claim

Several users shared the video with the caption, “Do you want to see this in whole India. This is West Bengal; Jihadis tease a Hindu girl in front of her mother, pick them up... why, because there is anti-Hindu and Muslim government there. Imagine the day when Muslim government in India became a Muslim government in the center.” (Translated from Hindi: क्या आप ऐसा ही पूरे भारत में देखना चाहते हैं. ये पश्चिम बंगाल है -- राह चलती हिन्दू लड़की को उसकी मां के सामने ही छेड़ते हैं, उठा लेते हैं --क्यों , क्योंकि वहां हिन्दू विरोधी और मुस्लिम परस्त सरकार है --कल्पना कीजिए उस दिन कि जिस दिन पूरे भारत में मुस्लिम परस्त सरकार बन गई, केन्द्र में मुस्लिम परस्त सरकार बन गई ----तो. वो हमको जातियों में बांट रहे हैं और हम कट रहे हैं-)

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What We Found

Video from Uttar Pradesh: A reverse image search on the keyframes of the viral video showed a report by NDTV from May, 2017, that included the viral visuals. The article stated 14 men grouped together to molest two women in a village in Rampur, Uttar Pradesh. The assailants had also filmed the incident and posted it on social media. On May 29, 2017, Midday reported the police had filed an FIR after the video went viral. The report quoted the then Rampur police Superintendent Vipin Tada saying that all the men involved were identified and the main accused Shahnawaz was arrested. India Today had published a report at the time stating that four out of fourteen accused were arrested by Uttar Pradesh police.

Also Read:Scripted Video Of Domestic Abuse Viral With False Communal Spin