CLAIM
The Quint received a WhatsApp query about a video showing a woman abusing two children with the claim, “इस वीडियो में जो लेडीज है यह शायद हो सकता है की भारत मे कोई अनाथ आश्रम चला रही हो और इसकी आड़ मे यह खूब धन भी बटोर रही हो.......इसने बच्चो के साथ जो किया है इस विडियो को पुरे भारत मे फेलाओ शायद इसे कोई पहचान ले और इसको सजा मिल सके....”
(Translation: “In this video, this lady may be running an orphanage in India and earning money under its cover... Perhaps if this video is shared across India, she can be recognised and punished for what she has done to these children.”)
In the video the woman can be seen beating the kids with a wooden stick. She then appears to sodomise the boy with the same weapon and then force it down his throat.
The video has been viral on Facebook with the same claims, since 2016, and was shared recently as well.
TRUE OR FALSE?
Though the video is authentic, the claims made in the message are false. The video is from Turkey and it came to light in 2015 when a stepmother was accused of abusing her step-children.
WHAT WE FOUND OUT
A reverse image search on Yandex of a screenshot from the video led us to Turkish newspaper website, Kent Yasam Gazetesi, along with several other Turkish sites, which when translated, reported that the video is from Kayseri, a city in Turkey.
Kent Yasam Gazetesi reports that the woman, identified as Songul A, was sentenced to 46 years in prison for torture and sexual abuse of two children by the Assize Court in Kayseri, on 16 December 2015. The judgment came after she was recorded by her husband, Akif A on a hidden camera.
In the footage, Songul can be seen abusing her 5-year-old son and 7-year-old daughter with a stick, who later had to be hospitalised for two months.
“I also had psychological problems at that time. I also suffered. I regret the torture on children,” the father reportedly said.
The Inquisitr, an online news aggregator, posted an article about the incident on 27 December 2015, stating that “though the video was posted on news sites in Turkey and uploaded to YouTube in Turkish, details of the case have trickled to the rest of the world.”
The article also stated that a news report from Turkey claimed that the stepmother was badly beaten in prison when other inmates learned about the abuse.
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