Fact Check: Viral video of naked woman chasing cops is from UP, not Manipur

Mohammed Zubair's fact-checking platform Alt News has debunked a viral video doing the rounds on Twitter since Friday, July 21, which shows a naked woman chasing after and beating a male cop with sticks, while a large crowd behind the woman is cheering her on.

The original account that posted the 36-second-long clip [@Maha39574742] claimed that the video is from violence-stricken Manipur.

"I thought of not posting these obscene scenes but the Congress Dravidian parties here are trying to politicise this. These are the scenes taking place in Manipur but the news or whatever is coming out is not the truth. The truth should be disclosed to the people with evidence," wrote the user, hinting that the opposition is "politicising" the May 4 video of a horrific assault on women to attack the Modi-led Centre.

Another user [@Kesariya_Meenu] tweeted the same video and claimed that a team of naked women was active in Manipur to fight the cops.

The Alt News fact-check reveals that the video, is in fact, from the Chandauli district of Uttar Pradesh, led by the Yogi Adityanath-BJP government.

At the start of the viral video itself, a man can be heard shouting in the background "Sonu Kinnar Zindabad" (Long live Sonu Kinnar). A YouTube video found by the platform, from 16 May 2023 uploaded by a channel called UP Tak, shows an altercation between the supporters of Sonu Kinnar, who had contested civic elections as an independent candidate, and a BJP candidate by the name of Malti Sonkar, who lost to Kinnar by a margin of 397 votes.

"BJP supporters allegedly stormed the counting centre demanding a recount, following which supporters of Sonu Kinnar got embroiled in a physical fight with the police," reads the fact-check report.

The video also shows that the exact location of this protest took place in May at the Kendriya Vidyalaya (which acted as the counting center of the municipal election) in Chandauli, UP.

"On May 16, another Twitter user [@gyanu999] had posted a longer version of this clip, which showed several protesters stripping and then hurling plastic chairs at policemen. In the same tweet, he also included the 36-second video which has now gone viral with the claim that it is from Manipur," the report further adds.

This fake video was mass-shared by supporters of the BJP on Twitter days after horrifying visuals emerged from Manipur which shook the entire nation — a video, shot on May 4, where two disrobed women were paraded and assaulted by a gang of men.

Following the Alt News fact check, Trinamool Congress leader Mahua Moitra took to Twitter to criticise BJP's "whatabouttery" to combat real evidence.

"BJP IT & Strategy Cell Morons — get this straight: Spreading zillion fake videos & creating fake hype on alleged crimes in Opposition ruled states does nothing to take away from horror in Manipur. You cannot hide it. Nor deflect from it. Nor spin it. You can only face up to it," she wrote.