A three-minute video that purportedly shows a kidnapping attempt is making the rounds on WhatsApp. In the video, we see a person wearing a burka running hysterically while two men in a car chase the person and keep asking what she was hiding and if they could give the person a lift. One of the men in the car records the entire ordeal as they chase the woman. Moreover, a child’s leg is also visible underneath the burka of the person who was running. This suggests that the child has likely been kidnapped.
They eventually catch up to the alleged kidnapper and find out that it was a man who had a child underneath the burka. The child was lured into coming along with the man with the promise of a chocolate and was asked to maintain a low profile. The man in question tries to flee several times in between this conversation. Meanwhile, a woman arrives on a scooter and finds the four people on the road. She claims to be the child’s biological mother and recognises the child immediately. The accused burka-clad man is made to remove the burka and the mother, along with those who were filming the act, get into a physical altercation with the alleged kidnapper.
A two-minute version of the video has been shared on Twitter by the user @jayasri10964921.
बुरखा भी कमाल की चीज है, बहुत कुछ होता है बुरखे की आड़ में ??
जय हो बुरखा की ?? pic.twitter.com/lWG5nMUoId
— 🚩🙏हलाला की आड़ में अत्याचार क्यो, F 100%🚩 (@jayasri10964921) July 23, 2022
Another user @SanniMathur2 has also shared the same video on Twitter.
हे राम बुर्का का दुरूपयोग ??🧐pic.twitter.com/xoOfd1pxjI
— Sanni Mathur (@SanniMathur2) July 24, 2022
Alt News has received multiple requests on our WhatsApp helpline (76000 11160) to verify the authenticity of this claim. The video is labelled ‘Forwarded many times’.
The three-minute-long clip of the attempted kidnapping is also available on YouTube. Readers interested in watching the clip can do so by clicking on this link.
Video verification
In addition to the three-minute video, a longer five-minute clip is also viral on WhatsApp.
Upon viewing the full video, we noticed that a disclaimer appears at the forty-second mark in the five-minute clip for less than two seconds. After this, no other disclaimers appear in the video. Its opening sentence reads, “The content made in this video should be considered for entertainment purposes only”. The rest of the disclaimer cannot be read because of the low resolution of the video. This happens when a video or an image has been forwarded many times on WhatsApp.
The readers should note that the three-minute video which is equally viral on WhatsApp does not have a disclaimer. The shorter clip is missing the first 54 seconds of footage of the longer video.
In the past, we have verified multiple such videos that were dramatised. A staged video with a similar script was debunked by Alt News just in the second week of July. Here, a woman tries to kidnap the child of a deaf and mute lady but is caught by two men. This video also had a disclaimer displayed on the screen for a fraction of a second.
In June, Alt News reported that verified accounts were sharing staged videos on their social media page. The article also explained the role behind disingenuous “disclaimers” in these videos. It is worth noting that such disclaimers are only written in the English language thus excluding a chunk of those who are not familiar with the language.
To sum it up, two videos that show a staged incident of a man dressed in a burka attempting to kidnap a child are viral on WhatsApp. The longer video contains a disclaimer, which establishes that the video is dramatised. However, due to the low resolution of the video, it is difficult to read the disclaimer.
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.
