By: Umme Kulsum
July 28 2023
Old video of a group of men sexually assaulting a woman in Bihar shared as recent
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Fact-Check
The Verdict Misleading
This video dates back to 2021 and is not recent. The incident captured in the video took place in the Saran district of Bihar.
Claim ID a14fc2ca
(Trigger Warning: This story contains descriptions of distressing visuals and mentions of sexual assault. Reader discretion is advised.)
Context
A video of a gang of men sexually assaulting a woman has gone viral on social media. The video shows the woman, riding pillion on a motorcycle with a male companion, trying to cover herself with her saree and pleading the men to stop as they grope and try to disrobe her. A Twitter user shared the disturbing video with the caption, "#BreakingNews for Prime Minister of India It is very sad that after #ManipurViolence and #BengalViolence, now #BiharViolence is being seen, the sleeping people of Bihar will never see the open crimes being committed against this woman. Om Shanti Bihar." This post and others sharing the video with similar claims have gained thousands of views online, with many users urging the Bihar government and the police to take action against the perpetrators. The video comes in just days after a clip of two women being paraded naked and sexually assaulted in Manipur emerged online and triggered outrage nationwide.
However, this viral video from Bihar is old and not of a recent incident.
In Fact
Logically Facts conducted a reverse image search using keyframes from the viral video. This led us to a report by Hindi news website Daily News 360, run by the Patrika media group, published on October 6, 2021. The report carried two screengrabs from the viral video and mentioned that the video was from Saran district in Bihar.
We then came across a video report by News18 Bihar-Jharkhand— part of the News18 news and media conglomerate— uploaded on YouTube on October 7, 2021. The report shared a blurred version of the viral video. According to the report, the incident captured in the viral video took place on September 27, 2021, near Chhapra village (under the jurisdiction of Dariapur police station) in Bihar's Saran district.
The report further said that the Bihar Police launched a suo motu investigation into the incident after the video went viral in October 2021. The report stated that Superintendent of Police (SP) Santosh Kumar told reporters that six people were involved in the incident and that four suspects had been apprehended, while the other two remained at large.
Hindustan Times and AajTak had also reported on the incident and the subsequent police action. The survivors had filed no complaint, but the local police registered an FIR, the reports added.
Although the video is from Bihar, it is from 2021 and is not recent.
After the horrifying video of two women being sexually assaulted in Manipur went viral, old videos of sexual violence against women have resurfaced, claiming to be recent. Logically Facts has debunked several such claims.
The Verdict
A video from 2021 showing a woman being sexually assaulted in Bihar has been circulating as a recent incident after the emergence of the Manipur viral video. Therefore, we mark the claim misleading.