Old sexual assault video from Andhra revived with false communal spin

A disturbing video of a man sexually assaulting a girl while another records the act has been shared with the claim that a Muslim woman ‘handed over’ her Hindu friend to a Muslim man. “Hindu girls, beware of your Muslim girl friends,” warns the viral message.

[Viral Hindi text: “देख लो कैसे मुस्लिम लड़कियां ऐसे जिहादी मुस्लिम लड़कों को हिन्दू लड़कियों को सोप देती है। हिन्दू लड़कियां अपनी मुस्लिम सहेलियों से सावधान रहे.”]

Another user @JHRsitaram99 shared the video with the same claim.

It is widely circulating on Facebook as an ‘awareness’ video for Hindu girls and women.

 

The clip was also tweeted by Twitter user Gopal Goswami. In October 2020, Goswami had shared a video from Bangladesh as female students sexually harassed in a madrasa in India.

Fact-check

The News Minute journalist Dhanya Rajendran had tweeted in September 2020 that the video shows an incident that took place in Andhra Pradesh in 2017.

#Factcheck– It is horrible that this happened to this woman. However, to tweet a COMPLETELY wrong information and to not blur her is also horrible. This incident happened in Andhra 3 years ago, and the police had swiftly arrested all three. FYI @parasguptaoff13 https://t.co/WGlxmvf3Tk

— Dhanya Rajendran (@dhanyarajendran) September 7, 2020

A subsequent keyword search led us to a video report by the Times of India dated September 26, 2017, which said that a minor girl was molested in Hyderabad. This had occurred in a town called Kanigiri in Prakasam district. According to the report, the girl was attacked by her boyfriend. He had encouraged his friend to film the whole thing. The accused believed that the girl had gotten involved in a new relationship. The sexual assault was an act of revenge. A month after the incident, he uploaded the video on social media, following which the Andhra Pradesh police took action and arrested three individuals – the girl’s boyfriend and main accused B Sai, and his two friends Karthik and Pawan.

Several media outlets including News X, The Hindu and NDTV had published reports on the sexual assault.

Video viral last year as an incident from Kerala

The same video was circulating on social media in September 2020 with the false claim that it is from Kerala. Those sharing the video were also claiming that such violence is frequent in Kerala, a “Hindu minority state”. Twitter user @Bhaiyaji_kahin wrote, “केरल में हो रही महिलाओं से छेड़छाड़ का वीडियो यह कोई पहला वीडियो वायरल नहीं इस प्रकार की घटना हर दिन घटित होती है इसका मुख्य उद्देश्य हिन्दुओं का अल्पसंख्यक होना.” Another Twitter user @purhohitdilip4 shared the video with a similar claim.

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The video was also circulating on Facebook.

Are Hindus a minority in Kerala?

According to the 2011 census, Hindus make up 54.74% of Kerala’s population. Furthermore, 26.56% of the population comprises Muslims and 18.38% are Christians. Hindus enjoy a majority status in the state, unlike social media claims.

A video of a boyfriend sexually assaulting his girlfriend in Andhra Pradesh while his friend recorded a video has been shared with the false claim that a Muslim girl ‘helped’ a Muslim man carry out the attack. Last year, the same video was widespread as Kerala.