A collage of photos of a man appearing to physically assault a woman while a crowd looks on is being shared on social media with the claim that Nepal Police are watching the incident and not taking action.
However, we found that the photos are from a street drama that was enacted in memory and to create awareness about the rape of a 13-year-old girl that had taken place in Nepal in July 2018.
The Quint is not revealing her identity in this story as she was a minor.
CLAIM
The post claims that Nepal Police can be seen in the photo taking a video of the incident instead of taking action, like a film shooting is taking place. The post points towards what it says are policemen with orange marks as seen above.
The incident pictured in the photo appears to look like a physical assault.
The post had over 180 shares at the time this story was published.
WHAT WE FOUND
On going through the comments on the post, we found that many people were saying that this was an enactment of an incident that had taken place in order to create awareness among people. We also found a Facebook user commenting with the JusticeFor... hashtag.
On running a search for the name mentioned in the hashtag asking for justice, we found that it pertained to the rape of a 13-year-old girl that had taken place in Nepal in July 2018.
The girl had been found dead in a sugarcane field in Kanchanpur’s Bhimdatta Municipality, a report by The Himalayan Times said.
On searching Facebook with keywords ‘Justice For’ along with the girl’s name, we came across some videos which carried a short clip of what was evidently an enactment of what had possibly happened with the girl. Moreover, the girl playing the victim in the enactment was dressed to resemble the latter. These videos, which call for justice for the girl, can be seen here, here and here and match the photos being shared in the Facebook post.
In one of the videos, we noticed the watermark DCNepal. On searching YouTube with the same keywords, we came across the full video, titled saying that it was a street drama on the rape case.
This video was uploaded in December 2018 and clearly shows that the viral photos are from this street drama that was put up.
Many people can be seen crowding around and taking photos and videos, while others are sitting with posters demanding justice for the girl.
Therefore, it is clear that a photo of a drama is going viral as a real incident and is being used to raise questions on Nepal Police for inaction.
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