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| - Fact Check: This kidnapping drama is not what it seems
A video of three men abducting children in broad daylight has gone viral on social media in the hopes of saving other children from being kidnapped similarly.
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India Today Fact Check
The one-year-old incident from Haryana’s Panchkula was not a kidnap-for-ransom case. The kids were abducted by their father who wanted to “save” them from his “abusive” estranged wife.
A video of three men abducting two little kids is circulating on social media with an appeal to share it as much as possible so the children could be saved.
The 45-second CCTV clip shows three men emerging out of a white car, snatching away the kids from a man and driving off. The video, originally posted in 2019, is still circulating on Facebook.
The caption of the Facebook post reads, “Send this video to the whole of India and reach the corner of the world by any means. Save the children Plz. I did it. And you can not imagine how big help you are doing by sharing.”
India Today Anti Fake News War Room (AFWA) has found the claim to be misleading. The three-year-old incident from Haryana’s Panchkula was not a kidnap-for-ransom case. The kids were abducted by their father who wanted to “save” them from his “abusive” estranged wife.
The video, posted last year, has been shared more than 62,000 times. Many Facebook users are still sharing it, believing the incident to be a kidnap-for-ransom case.
The archived versions of these posts can be seen here and here.
Using InVID and reverse-image search, we found that the incident was reported by several media outlets in 2019.
As per these news reports, the incident took place on May 16, 2019, in Panchkula, Haryana. One Gurpreet Singh had kidnapped his two children with the help of three associates from his father-in-law Subhash Singh while they were returning from school.
Police booked an FIR against Gurpreet on the basis of a complaint by his father-in-law. But he was not arrested.
Later, Gurpreet called a press conference in Panchkula, where his kids were also present, and confessed to kidnapping his children to “save” them from his “abusive” wife with whom he was fighting a divorce case in court.
Gurpreet alleged that even before the divorce was granted by the court, his wife had remarried without disclosing her marital status and the fact that she had children. He claimed his wife used to torture the kids, and as a father, he wanted to save them.
As per reports, Manish, the second husband, was also present at the press conference, where he confessed that he was duped and blackmailed by the woman. Manish had also filed a police complaint against her.
Since the matter is in court, Panchkula police refused to comment on the incident and the woman’s family had also chosen not to speak to the media.
Fact check website “Vishvas News” had reported about the incident last year.
Therefore, it is confirmed that the viral video of child-lifting is an outcome of a family dispute and not a kidnap-for-ransom as wrongly claimed on social media.
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You can also send us an email at factcheck@intoday.com
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