Fact-Check: Clip Shows Manipur Police Beating Kuki Villagers? No, Claim Is False

We found that the video could be traced back to March 2022 and is being shared with a false claim on the internet.

A video which shows several security personnel assaulting civilians is being shared on the internet as a recent incident from Manipur.

What are users claiming?: Those sharing the video have uploaded it with a caption that said, "Manipur Police atrocities on Kuki-Zo villagers (unarmed). Manipur Police atrocity on Kuki villagers. Another proof that these atrocities are state-sponsored (sic)."

(You can view more archives of similar claims here, here, and here.)

What is the truth?: The video could be traced back to March 2022. It reportedly shows security personnel beating up people who were allegedly involved in damaging Electronic Voting Machines (EVM) during the second phase of legislative assembly elections in Manipur.

How did we find out?: We extracted several keyframes from the viral video using a Google Chrome extension called InVID and performed a reverse image search on them. We supplemented the search with keywords such as "Manipur police violence."

• This led us to a similar version of the video uploaded on a Facebook page named 'This Politics'.

• It was posted on 6 March 2022, and its caption said, "Poll violence reported in Saibol Tengnaoupal, Manipur on 5 March 2022."

• The video said that the police were seen beating people who allegedly came to destroy the polling booth in Saibol.

News reports: According to E-PAO, Tengnoupal police registered a case against six people who were allegedly involved in damaging EVM at Saibol polling station during the second phase of the legislative assembly elections in Manipur.

• The report identified the accused as Naga People's Front (NPF) workers.

• It said that several NPF workers destroyed EVM after threatening polling personnel. However, the security forces managed to catch all of them and handed them over to the Tengnoupal police station.

Other sources: On performing a keyword search, we came across a video on YouTube which was uploaded on an unverified channel called 'kanam jem media'.

• The video was titled, "MLA ELECTION 2nd phase Amun:42/13 saibol polling station, Tengnoupal AC."

• It was uploaded on 5 March 2022 and showed some similar visuals as the viral video.

Conclusion: It is clear that the video is old and reportedly shows security personnel beating people who allegedly damaged EVM during the second phase of the legislative assembly elections in Manipur.

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