Video of ‘Mentally Ill’ Woman Accused of Child-Lifting is Fake

CLAIM

Amid the increasing instances of child-lifting rumours, several videos and images are circulating on social media with the claim that 2000 Rohingyas are kidnapping children to either sell them or kill them.

The claim reads: ‘सावधान पूरे हिन्दुस्तान में रोहिंग्या की 2000 लोगो की टीम आयी है जो बच्चों को उठा के ले जा रही है कोई बेचता है कोई बलि के लिये ले जाता है खुद देखो सुनो ओर ज्यादा से ज्यादा इसे फैलाओ’’

(Translation: Alert, a team of 2000 Rohingyas has come in India who kidnaps children. Some sell them, while others kill them. Watch yourself and listen and share it as much as you can)

Another video is doing the rounds in which a woman is being accused of having kidnapped children. She is being questioned on how many children she has kidnapped, on which platform of the station, etc.

The Quint received a query about the claim made in the images via its WhatsApp helpline.

TRUE OR FALSE?

The claim with which the video is being shared is false. The video is from Dimrauni village in Badagaon in Uttar Pradesh’s Jhansi district. The woman seen in the video is “mentally ill”, according to the police, and did not kidnap any children.

WHAT WE FOUND OUT

We found the same video shared with a different claim: ‘उत्तर प्रदेश के हाथरस में बच्चा चोर को लोगों ने पकड़ा सोशल मीडिया पर हो रहा है वीडियो वायरल’ (Translation: In Uttar Pradesh’s Hathras, people caught the person who kidnapped children. The video is viral on social media)

An official in Hathras police station told The Quint that the video is not from Hathras and no such incident had taken place. Consequently, we searched on YouTube using keywords ‘बच्चा चोर ‘ and found a video with the claim: ‘बच्चा चोर गिरोह की महिला सदस्य पकड़ी गई, कृपया अपने बच्चों को संभाल कर रखें’

Then we searched on YouTube using keywords ‘बच्चा चोर गिरोह ’ and found another video of the same woman which was uploaded by ‘Bharat News Live 24.’ The description along with the video mentioned that it is from Dimrauni village which comes under the jurisdiction of Badagaon police station in Uttar Pradesh’s Jhansi district.

An official in Badagaon police station confirmed to The Quint that the incident did take place a few days back, but the woman in the video did not kidnap any children. People suspected that she had kidnapped children. She is “mentally ill” and no case of child-lifting has been reported recently, the official added.

PAST INSTANCES OF ‘MENTALLY UNSOUND’ PEOPLE SUSPECTED TO BE CHILD-LIFTERS

• In a video which is circulating with the same claim, a man dressed in a woman’s attire can be seen being questioned about details like how many members are there in his team, where are the children taken, where does he sell their kidney etc. The incident is from Khilara village in Mauranipur in Jhansi district in Uttar Pradesh. The man seen in the video is mentally unsound, according to the police, and did not kidnap any children.
• A video on social media had earlier claimed that a man, allegedly by the name of ‘Shamsher’, had kidnapped children. The video shows a group of people questioning the man about details of the number of children he has kidnapped, the amount of money he gets to do the same, who his boss is and where he kidnapped the children from. An official in the Mandideep police station told The Quint that the man in the video had not kidnapped any children and is differently abled.

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