Old video falsely shared as hostel girls forced to strip by Mumbai cops

by Priyanka Jha

A video of a semi-naked woman embroiled in a heated argument with a group of people in the lobby of a building is circulating on social media. “Uddhav Thackeray is making Maharashtra a hell to live in. Hostel girls are forced to strip & dance naked by Mumbai Police,” reads the claim shared with the video.

Several individuals have circulated the video attacking Maharashtra chief minister Uddhav Thackeray.

Fact-check

The video in question is a broadcast by The Times of India. It was uploaded by the outlet in October 2018. “A content writer and an aspiring model partially stripped in the elevator of a housing society in Andheri to drive away a team of cops that had arrived following her altercation with a security guard. Later, she tweeted that she had to accompany them to the police station at 3 am, despite no female cop being present,” reported The Times of India.

The incident took place when BJP’s Devendra Fadnavis was in power. Shiv Sena’s Uddhav Thackeray took the chief ministerial oath on November 2018, 2019.

A follow-up report by The Times of India stated, “Megha Sharma claims she requested security guards to help her buy cigarettes late night. The guards didn’t help her despite many of them being on duty, she claimed. Abusive language by one guard led to the altercation and she called the police. Cops came without any female constable. Sharma claims cops insisted she accompany them to the police station late night. She partially stripped in the elevator of a housing society in Andheri to drive away a team of cops that had arrived following her altercation with a security guard.”

A video of a woman partially stripping in a Mumbai housing complex in 2018 has been shared with the false claim that hostel girls were forced to strip by policemen under Uddhav Thackeray’s government.

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About the Author

She specializes in information verification, examining mis/disinformation, social media monitoring and platform accountability. Her aim is to make the internet a safer place and enable people to become informed social media users. She has been a part of Alt News since 2018.