Fact-Check: Old Video of Virat Kohli Falsely Linked to Kolkata Rape Case

The original video was posted on 6 January 2017, and has no connection to the RG Kar Medical College case.

Fact-check: An old video of Virat Kohli has gone viral, falsely attributed to current Kolkata rape case.

(Photo: Altered by the Quint)

A video reportedly showing Virat Kohli condemning the alleged rape and murder of a 31-year-old trainee doctor at Kolkata's RG Kar Medical College and Hospital has gone viral on social media.

An archive of the post can be found here.

Source: X (formerly Twitter)/Screenshot)

This clip was posted across Facebook, X and Instagram, garnering over 25 lakh views at the time of writing this report.

(Archives of other claims can be found here and here).

What is the truth?: The video is old.

• It was originally posted on Virat Kohli's X account on 6 January 2017, after several cases of molestation on New Year's Eve emerged from Bengaluru.

How did we find the truth? We conducted a reverse image search using Google Lens, which revealed that the video was posted in January 2017.

• The video's original source was tracked to the official X account of Virat Kohli.

• This predates the recent case by seven years, making it impossible for the video to depict Virat Kohli speaking out about the ongoing incident.

In the video, Kohli spoke about numerous reports of women in Bengaluru being molested on New Years Eve in 2016, with reports of mass molestations surfacing.

Virat Kohli's condemnation of the incident was reported by several news sources, including NDTV and the The Indian Express.

Published in January 2017.

(Source: The Indian Express/Screenshot)

Published in January 2017.

(Source: NDTV Sports/Screenshot)

Conclusion: This claim is false, as cricketer Virat Kohli original video predates the incident by seven years.

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