A video of a group of policemen escorting a woman is being shared widely on social media platforms. It has been claimed that the woman is Priyadarshini Yadav from Lucknow, who recently made headlines after a video of her beating a cab driver went viral. Users are claiming that she has now been arrested.

Finally #Lucknow Girl is Arrested

Finally #Lucknow Girl is Arrested 🙄
लखनऊ थप्पड़बाज लड़की गिरफ्तार की गई।

Posted by We Are Lucknowites on Friday, August 6, 2021

The Facebook page for an outlet named Indian News also shared this video with the same claim. The channel uploaded a split-screen video of Yadav interacting with the media on the left and footage of the woman being arrested on the right.

Arrested Priyadarshini Narayan Yadav || Lucknow Beaten Girl Arrest || प्रियदर्शिनी हुई गिरफ्तार !

Arrested Priyadarshini Narayan Yadav || Lucknow Beaten Girl Arrest || प्रियदर्शिनी हुई गिरफ्तार !

Posted by Indian News on Saturday, August 7, 2021

Apart from this, many other Facebook pages posted this video, including X24 News Satyamev Jayate as well as We Are Lucknowites.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Old video, false claim

First of all, none of the people in the video seem to be following COVID-19 protocols. None of the people are wearing masks or maintaining social distancing. This suggests that the visuals cannot be recent. Furthermore, the woman does not resemble Priyadarshini Yadav at all. Alt News performed a reverse image search of the video’s frames along with a keyword search. We found the original video uploaded on YouTube on March 30, 2017. The video description states, “Anandpal’s partner Anuradha has been arrested by the police.”

A June 2016 video report by News24 also features footage from the video that is currently viral. The report is about Anuradha Chaudhary of Rajasthan, also known as ‘Lady Don’. A Rajasthan court sentenced Chaudhary to two years imprisonment along with a fine of Rs. 20,000.

Recently, Dainik Jagran and TV9 Bharatvarsh covered Anuradha Chaudhary’s arrest. These reports carry screengrabs from the video in circulation. The TV9 Bharatvarsh article states, “Anuradha Chaudhary was sentenced to two years imprisonment in 2016 by a court in Nagaur district. Along with this, she was also fined a sum of Rs. 20,000. Anuradha was born in the Sikar district of Rajasthan. She has also been a close aide of gangster Anandpal Singh and used to cooperate with Singh in the trade of illegal weapons. There are several serious crimes registered against her including robbery, kidnapping, and extortion.”

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

To sum it up, a five-year-old video depicting the arrest of Rajasthan’s Anuradha Chaudhary is being shared as that of Priyadarshini Yadav of Lucknow.

Speaking about her arrest, Yadav told Aaj Tak that if she had actually been arrested, she could not have made an appearance on live television. She also said that she would take the help of the cyber cell if the social media trolling does not die down anytime soon.

Donate to Alt News!
Independent journalism that speaks truth to power and is free of corporate and political control is possible only when people start contributing towards the same. Please consider donating towards this endeavour to fight fake news and misinformation.

Donate Now

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.