Fact Check: Old video of sexual assault in AP falsely linked to Manipur with communal twist

Hyderabad: A video circulating on social media shows a boy sexually abusing a girl, while another girl attempts to rescue her. Those sharing the video allege that it depicts a Hindu boy assaulting a Christian college student from the Kuki community in violence-stricken Manipur.

An X user shared the video (warning: contains disturbing visuals) and wrote, “#ManipurVoilence in India a Hindu is trying to rape a university student in the Bush. The girl is from a Christian minority called the kukis. This all happens under the supervision of the state government. But the government refrains to take action against such rapists. #Pajeets.”

Fact Check

NewsMeter found that the claim is false. The incident happened in Andhra Pradesh in 2017.

On conducting a reverse image search of the video’s keyframes, we found it reported by TV9 Telugu on September 26, 2017. According to the channel, the video depicts a rape attempt on a girl in Andhra Pradesh’s Prakasam district, whose video was recorded and circulated on social media.

According to an NDTV report, the 19-year-old girl was sexually abused by her boyfriend and his two friends allegedly shared on social media and circulated among friends. The three accused were arrested in Andhra Pradesh’s Prakasam district.

The report noted that the girl and her friend had visited a temple to meet the accused, B Sai, whom she had known for over a year. Police also arrested Karthik, a former close friend of the girl, who was allegedly upset about her new relationship. The report did not mention any communal angle.

The Hindu, Times Now and Jansatta had also reported the incident in 2017 with the same details. None of these reports mentioned any communal angle.

Hence, we conclude that the claim that the video depicts a Hindu boy sexually attacking a Christian girl in Manipur is false.