Fact Check: Video claiming to be kidnapping of Vikarabad woman is indeed of Kolar incident

Hyderabad: A woman, who went to shopping, was kidnapped by some unidentified assailants on Sunday (September 27, 2020) in Vikarabad district, Telangana. The family members of the woman, Deepika, alleged that she might have been kidnapped by her husband Akhil.

A video claiming to be the CCTV footage related to Deepika's kidnapping is going viral on social media, which shows the miscreants forcing her into a car. This claim has been shared on several Facebook accounts as well as YouTube channels.

The video has also been shared by a Telugu TV channel website sakshi.com.

Snapshots of the video were also used in the report published by Hans India.com.

Archived links of the claims can be accessed here, here, here and here.

Fact Check:

The claim that the video was showing the kidnapping of the Vikarabad woman is FALSE. It is an old one and shows an incident that took place in Kolar in August 2020.

The VIkarabad SP shared a tweet stating that no CCTV footage has been found in connection with the kidnapping of the woman in Vikarabad. He also said that the video showing a girl being abducted and forced into a car is NOT related to the incident that took place in Vikarabad. Do not believe in the rumours that are making rounds on social media.

Here is the complete report of the Vikarabad incident (in Telugu).

The kidnapping incident happened in Kolar, Karnataka, in broad daylight, around 11.30 am, and was caught on the CCTV camera.

The victim, Shilpa, was kidnapped by a group of three men – Shivshankar, Balaji, and Deepak. Shivshankar allegedly masterminded the crime because Shilpa had turned down his proposal for marriage. Passersby who were witnesses to the incident alerted the police immediately.

Kolar SP Karthik Reddy told the media that the woman was kidnapped and then confined in a lodge in Tumakuru district where Shivshankar attempted to convince her to marry him. However, Shilpa managed to intimate her family members about her whereabouts.

In a joint operation, the Kolar and Tumakuru police, tracked down the kidnappers the next day after the kidnapping.

Around 10 am, the police found that the kidnappers had abandoned their car and taken to their heels to Akkathangi kere, near Hanumanthapura bridge in Tumakuru.

A woman was walking down the road with her friend on what seemed like a usual day in Karnataka's Kolar. However, everything changed within a few moments when a white car stopped beside her, a man stepped out, lifted the woman up and forced her into the car.

Her horrified friend tried to stop them but the woman was pushed into the car and in a fraction of a second, the car sped away. This terrifying incident was caught on CCTV camera.

Hence, the claim that the viral video shows the recent kidnapping of the Vikarabad woman is FALSE. The video is of the kidnapping incident that took place in Kolar in August 2020.