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| - Fact Check: Did Indian men save Korean YouTuber only to rape her? No, this headline is doctored
India Today found that the article was doctored, and the headline was edited.
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India Today Fact Check
The article is doctored, and the headline has been edited.
A screenshot of an article in The Times of India has been widely shared on social media. The headline of the article read, "WATCH: South Korean YouTuber, harassed in Mumbai, meets two ‘Indian heroes’ who rescue her only to end up getting raped by them.”
Those sharing this screenshot claimed that two young Indian men saved a Korean YouTuber from a molester only to later sexually assault her. An X user shared the screenshot and wrote: “Never trust anyone.”
India Today found the article doctored and the headline edited. Originally published by Times Now, not The Times of India, the article's headline was “[WATCH] South Korean YouTuber, harassed in Mumbai, meets two ‘Indian heroes’ who rescued her; shares video.”
Our Probe
We searched for multiple keywords from the piece to see if any report matching this description was published by The Times of India. However, our search did not reveal any such report.
We also found another screenshot of a report featuring the same headline and lead shared on Facebook on October 22. But this report was not published by The Times of India; it was published by Mirror Now Digital. Additionally, this screenshot featured the name of its author, Sarmeeli Mallick.
Based on this, we conducted a follow-up search and found a report on the official Times Now website dated December 2, 2022. This report shares similarities with the viral report we were investigating. It is authored by the same journalist, Sarmeeli Mallick, for Mirror Now Digital.
When we compared the viral article with the Times Now report, it became evident that the viral report was an edited version of the Times Now article. The headline of the Times Now article reads, “[WATCH] South Korean YouTuber, harassed in Mumbai, meets two ‘Indian heroes’ who rescued her; shares video.” In the viral report, the phrase “shares video” was removed, and “only to end up getting raped by them” was included instead.
We also notice that a similar change has been made to the lead. The phrase “bid in Mumbai” was replaced with “ended up getting brutally raped by the two who are yet to be apprehended by the Mumbai police.”
On November 29, 2022, a South Korean YouTuber was sexually harassed by two men, Mobeen Chand Mohammed Shaikh and Mohammed Naqeeb Sadrealam Ansari, in Khar, Mumbai. Two young men, Aditya and Atharva, witnessed the incident and stepped in to rescue her. On December 2, the YouTuber invited Aditya and Atharva to lunch as a gesture of gratitude.
The YouTuber shared the same pictures used in the article and wrote: “Lunch with two Indian gentlemen who help me to post the video and save me on the street. Aditya & Atharva.” However, she did not mention anything about Aditya and Atharva also harassing or assaulting her. We also could not find any reports suggesting the same.
Thus, it’s clear that the article was doctored, and the headline was edited.
(Written By Surajuddin Mondal)
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