News outlet Asian News International (ANI) misreported on Thursday that a Muslim man named Abdul Hilim, was arrested in relation to the viral video of two women being paraded naked and sexually assaulted in Manipur's Thoubal district by a mob.
The news agency quoted Manipur Police in its now deleted tweet, however, BOOM found that Abdul Hilim, was a cadre of the separatist group People’s Revolutionary Party of Kangleipak - Progressive (PREPAK Pro) and was arrested in Imphal; he had no connection to the viral video in question.
ANI tweeted a retraction and an apology on Friday after several Twitter users called them out for the erroneous tweet. The false claim was amplified by right-wing Twitter users adding a communal angle to the violent ethnic conflict between the Meitei and Kuki communities that has rocked the state since early May.
On May 4, 2023, two Kuki women in Kangpokpi, Thoubal district, were paraded naked on the streets during the clashes between their community and the Meiteis. According to Scroll, a zero FIR was filed in the Saikul police station against 800-1000 "unknown miscreants" on May 18. A video of this incident went viral recently, leading to a huge uproar on social media. The Manipur Police has since arrested four people in relation to this case, including Huirem Herodas, the main culprit who was seen in the viral video.
A screenshot of ANI's deleted tweet can be seen below:
While ANI deleted their tweet, quoted replies to the same can still be seen on Twitter where users have called the accused Abdul.
The tweets can be seen here, here, and here.
Rishi Bagree a right-wing Twitter user peddled the false claim further, calling the arrested individual Abdul Khan and naming him as the main accused. BOOM has fact-checked Bagree several times in the past for sharing communally charged misinformation. Read here.
Click here to view the tweet and here for an archive.
Tejinder Singh Bagga, national secretary of the Bhartiya Janata Yuva Morcha (BJYM), the BJP's youth wing, made a similar claim.
(View an archive here).
News outlet Outlook also carried the information from ANI's deleted tweet in its story about the gang rape case. Click here for an archive.
FACT-CHECK
BOOM found that Abdul Hilim was part of the separatist group PREPAK Pro and was arrested in Imphal for an extortion case and has no links to the gang rape case in Thoubal.
We searched for any updates regarding a Abdul Hilim on Manipur Police's Twitter page and found the below tweet uploaded on July 20. According to this, Mohammed Ibungo alias Abdul Hilim, 38, was arrested from Imphal and was a cadre of PREPAK Pro. The tweet does not mention anything about the gang rape case in Thoubal.
A source at the Thoubal police, not wanting to be named, confirmed to BOOM that four accused have been arrested in the sexual assault case.
"None of the four (arrested) are Muslims and nobody is named Abdul Hilim. The name of one arrested accused is Huirem Herodas Meitei. Further investigations are on."
Manipur Police also tweeted this from its official Twitter handle. See here.
We also contacted the Imphal East District police who denied that the accused arrested by them was connected to the sexual assault incident.
Superintendent of Police, Shivakanta Singh told BOOM that the accused, a member of the PREPAK insurgent group, was "arrested for extortion case only" under sections 17/20 of the Unlawful activities (Prevention) Act. He further added, that this arrest was, "not related with the video."
On July 21, ANI retracted its story and issued an apology on Twitter. The tweet explained that the mistake was made "based on an erroneous reading of tweets" and the post was deleted within a few minutes. The handle also mentioned that it confused Manipur Police's tweets regarding other unrelated arrests as arrests made in relation to the viral video.