| schema:text
| - Fact Check: This video DOES NOT show a naked Manipuri woman chasing cops, it's from UP
This video from May 13 shows a supporter of Sonu Kinnar, a transgender independent candidate who won the civic polls in the Chandauli district of UP.
Listen to Story
India Today Fact Check
This video has no links to Manipur. It is from an incident that took place in Chandauli during the May 2023 UP municipal elections.
Amid continued violence and political instability in Manipur, many shared a video of what appeared to be a naked woman brandishing a stick and chasing policemen on a road. Sharing the clip, one person wrote, “This is the situation in Manipur. What a terrible tragedy. The scene of a woman chasing the police naked on the roads What is happening to our India.” Archived versions of such posts can be found here and here.
This video was reminiscent of a 2004 protest organised by the Meira Paibis, also known as Imas or Mothers of Manipur against the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA), during which women stripped naked outside a military camp in the capital, Imphal.
India Today, however, found that the viral video had no links to Manipur. It showed an incident that unfolded in Uttar Pradesh's Chandauli during civic polls in May 2023.
Our Probe
A reverse search of keyframes from the viral clip led us to several tweets from May containing the viral video and other photos of the incident. Per them, this happened during municipal elections in UP.
We subsequently found several media reports about this incident. On May 13, supporters of independent transgender candidate Sonu Kinnar, who fought from Pandit Deendayal Upadhyay Nagar Palika Parishad seat in Chandauli, reportedly clashed with police officers alleging rigging in the counting of votes.
Per reports, Sonu Kinnar was leading against the Bharatiya Janata Party candidate Malti Sonkar by a margin of more than 350 votes. After five rounds of counting, Sonkar’s supporters started asking for a recount which irked Sonu’s cadre who then clashed with each other and cops.
A recount, however, was done the same day, following which Sonu emerged victorious garnering a total of 18,475 votes — 397 votes more than the BJP candidate.
In the viral video, chants of “Sonu Kinnar Zindabad” or “Long Live Sonu Kinnar” could be heard. Thus, it is more than clear that this video has no links to Manipur at all.
(Written by Sanjana Saxena)
Please share it on our at 73 7000 7000
You can also send us an email at factcheck@intoday.com
|
![[RDF Data]](/fct/images/sw-rdf-blue.png)
![[cxml]](/fct/images/cxml_doc.png)
![[csv]](/fct/images/csv_doc.png)
![[text]](/fct/images/ntriples_doc.png)
![[turtle]](/fct/images/n3turtle_doc.png)
![[ld+json]](/fct/images/jsonld_doc.png)
![[rdf+json]](/fct/images/json_doc.png)
![[rdf+xml]](/fct/images/xml_doc.png)
![[atom+xml]](/fct/images/atom_doc.png)
![[html]](/fct/images/html_doc.png)