A video of a transperson running naked and chasing a police officer while threatening to hit him with a stick is viral with a false claim that it is from the violence-hit north-eastern state of Manipur.
BOOM found that the video is from Uttar Pradesh and shows transgender supporters of an independent candidate Sonu Kinnar creating ruckus during the counting of votes in Uttar Pradesh's Chandauli district.
Since May this year, Manipur has seen several violent clashes between the Meitei and Kuki communities with more than 100 lives claimed to date. Manipur Chief Minister Biren Singh recently met Union Home Minister Amit Shah to brief him about the situation. Congress leader Rahul Gandhi who has questioning Prime Minister Narendra Modi's silence on the growing unrest, is set to visit Manipur on June 29, 2023.
The Manipur viral video is being shared with a caption that states, "*This is the situation of Manipur. What a terrible tragedy. The scene of a woman chasing the police naked on the roads*..don't know why...the center and the government are not able to control the destruction happening there."
Click here to view the post.
Click here to view the post.
Fact Check
In the video, one can hear Hindi slogans of "Sonu Kinnar Zindabad" being raised.
Using this as a cue, we searched with relevant keywords in Hindi on Twitter and found that several journalists had tweeted the same video detailing that the incident took place in Uttar Pradesh's Chandauli district.
Journalist Gyanendra Shukla tweeted the video on May 16 with a Hindi caption, "Chandauli: Sonu Kinnar was ahead in Municipal Council Mughalsarai, but the administration declared BJP candidate Malti Devi victorious by 138 votes, eunuchs protested fiercely in their own way, re-counting took place, in which Sonu Kinnar won by 397 votes."
We also found a UP Tak report from May 16 which explained that the incident was from May 13 when some members from the transgender community demanded a recount of the votes and protested naked.
News18 UP Uttarakhand too reported the clash between Sonu Kinnar supporters and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) workers on May 13, 2023, during the vote count in the UP civic elections.
However, Sonu was declared a winner after a recount of the votes received in the election.
BOOM has debunked several viral posts spreading misinformation about the violence in Manipur. Read here.