A video of a woman being greeted by people as she enters a room is being shared on social media with a false claim that she is the Dalit girl who was allegedly gang-raped in Hathras in Uttar Pradesh.
However, the video is that of Nazia Begum, who identifies herself as a motivational speaker and member of a purported multi-level marketing business ‘Safe Shop’.
CLAIM
The aforementioned video is being widely circulated on Facebook and Twitter to claim that the Hathras victim was an excellent student.
The claim in Hindi translates to: “Hathras’ daughter was also a topper when it came to studies. Look at how she is being welcomed. This is the same daughter who was gang-raped and murdered. Her tongue slit and eyes and body bruised.”
The video with the same misleading claim was shared on Facebook by Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) worker Priyanka Gautam and Congress worker Saddam Khan.
WHAT WE FOUND
We went through the comments section of the Facebook posts by Priyanka Gautam and Saddam Khan and found several comments which said that the woman in the video is not the Hathras victim but one Nazia Begum from Safe Shop.
We searched “Nazia Begum Safe Shop” on YouTube and found the same video posted by a user called Arjun Singh on 5 March.
In another video shared on YouTube, Nazia Begum can be seen describing her journey with the company.
We also reached out to employees working at Safe Space who confirmed that the woman in the video is Nazia Begum and people are touching her feet because it’s a ritual followed by the organisation.
Next, we looked up for Safe Shop and found that it is a purported multi-level marketing company based out of Hyderabad. We found that several people had registered complaints against the firm on a consumer complaints forum.
Further, this report by Deccan Chronicle states that in September 2019, eleven people associated with Safe Shop were arrested by the cops in Hyderabad for luring the public to join their business by investing Rs 10,000 and offering commissions.
Evidently, an unrelated video of a woman associated with Safe Shop is being falsely shared as that of the Hathras victim.
(With inputs from SM HoaxSlayer)
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