A disturbing video of a group of men manhandling and harassing two women is being shared on social media, to claim that it showed the situation in the state before 2017, i.e before Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath came to power.
The claim comes after Uttar Pradesh finished its second phase of polling for the state's Assembly elections.
But we found that the claim is false. We came across news reports on the incident from May 2017, two months after Adityanath assumed office in 2017. The incident occurred in Rampur, Uttar Pradesh and all four prime accused had been arrested.
CLAIM
The video is being shared claiming that it shows the condition of women in Uttar Pradesh before Yogi Adityanath came to power in 2017, and that it would happen again if Yogi Adityanath is not voted to power.
(Warning: We have refrained from using the video link as it shows scenes of abuse against women. Viewer discretion is advised.)
The video has been shared on social media platforms.
(Source: Twitter/Screeenshot)
WHAT WE FOUND OUT
Using InVID, we divided the clip in to keyframes and ran reverse searches on a few of them. One search led us to an Aaj Tak report dated 28 May, 2017, which also carried the same visuals.
The report was dated May 2017.
(Source: Aaj Tak/Altered by The Quint)
According to the report, the incident occurred in Tanda in Uttar Pradesh's Rampur, where 12-14 men harassed and molested women. The video of that act had gone viral on social media.
It added that the Tanda Police had taken cognisance of the act even before any body registered a complaint.
Taking a clue from this, we looked for more reports on the incident. We found an Indian Express article, which mentioned that the incident occurred on 22 May, 2017.
The police identified 14 people in the video, including some minors. A 20-year-old Shehanawaz from Kuwakhera was the first person arrested, it noted.
The Quint had also reported on the case, noting that 10 people had been arrested overall.
Yogi Adityanath was sworn in as Uttar Pradesh's new chief minister in March 2017, along with 47 others who formed his cabinet.
Clearly, the incident occurred in Rampur, Uttar Pradesh in May 2017, two months after Yogi Adityanath assumed office and not before his tenure, as claimed.
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