Old video of sexual assault case in Bengaluru involving Bangladeshis viral as recent incident in Manipur

Trigger Warning: Sexual Violence

A distressing video of a girl forced to take her clothes off has surfaced on the internet with the claim that the aforementioned incident happened in Manipur. Manipur has witnessed intense violence and tension since May 3 of this year after an ethnic clash broke out between the Meitei and Kuki communities in the state.

X (formerly Twitter) user Tanvir’s Backup account (@T_A_backup) posted the above-mentioned video on October 8 with the following caption: “TW: Molestation. Reportedly a video from #Manipur where a Christian girl was kidnapped. A few hindu men can be seen ripping off her clothes as she screams for help. The hindu men telecast this on SM as she was being gangraped by them. The hindus in Manipur have regime’s support”. The tweet has now been taken down by X for violating the rules of the platform. (Archive)

Facebook user Abdul Kadar also shared the same video on October 5 with a caption in Tamil that can be translated as: “Gang-rape in Manipur”.

Fact Check

We broke down the video into multiple keyframes and ran a reverse image search on a few of them. This led us to a news report by News Bangla 24, a news outlet in Dhaka, Bangladesh, from June 2021. The title of the report in Bengali can be translated as: “Abuse of young women in India: Trafficking ringleaders confess”. The report said that the survivor and the perpetrators both were Bangladeshi nationals and that the incident had occurred in Kerala.

Taking a cue from this, we ran a relevant keyword search and came across a report by the Deccan Herald. The report said five illegal Bangladeshi immigrants had been arrested in the case. The survivor was staying with the perpetrators who brought her from Bangladesh to India promising a job and later forced her into prostitution.

Bengaluru police arrested 12 persons, including three women, in connection to the gang rape and torture of the woman in the viral video.

We came across a tweet by the Bengaluru Police commissioner from July 8, 2021, that stated that out of the 12 arrested, 11 of the perpetrators are Bangladeshi nationals, including the survivor.

An update on the Bangladeshi woman abuse case:

Twelve accused are arrested, out of which 11 accused persons & the victim are Bangladeshi nationals. The investigation is complete and a detailed & systemic 1019 page charge sheet has been submitted to the Hon’ble Court.. (1/3)

— CP Bengaluru ಪೊಲೀಸ್ ಆಯುಕ್ತ ಬೆಂಗಳೂರು (@CPBlr) July 8, 2021

Therefore, the claim that the video is of a recent incident from Manipur is false. The video dates back to 2021 and occurred in Bengaluru. The police took action against the matter and arrested those involved in the case.