Video of men urinating on a tribal man is not from Manipur

By: Uzma Afreen
July 25 2023

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(Trigger Warning: This story contains descriptions of distressing visuals, and mentions of physical and sexual assault. Reader discretion is advised.)

Context

A video showing a man being thrashed and urinated on by a group of men is being shared with the claim that a Christian man was subjected to physical assault in Manipur. 

“In #Manipur, a mob of Hindutva goons urinated on a #Christian man and subjected him to physical assault. They then killed his wife and chid (sic),” the caption of the viral video read. The archive of the post can be found here.

The video is being shared after last week a clip from Manipur of a mob sexually assaulting women from the Kuki-Zomi tribe went viral amid the ongoing ethnic clashes in the state.

In Fact

On running a reverse image search of the keyframes from the viral video, we came across the same footage uploaded by news website NDTV on July 19, 2023. While the incident occurred in June 2023, the viral video of the assault surfaced a few days ago, on July 15. The report stated that the incident occurred in Andhra Pradesh’s Ongole, where a group of drunk men thrashed a tribal man and urinated on him, allegedly over his relationship with a minor. India Today and local news source Hans India have also reported on this incident, stating that it happened in Andhra Pradesh, not Manipur. Logically Facts has refrained from adding links that show the video of the assault.

Logically Facts spoke to Ongole Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) Narayana Swamy Reddy who confirmed the incident, and that the victim was a tribal. "The incident occurred on June 19, 2023, when the victim went out to drink with his friends." The DSP added that an official complaint was filed, but it did not mention urination. 

"After the police received the video on July 15, we conducted a re-examination and registered a case under attempt to murder (Section 307 IPC) and the Schedule Caste/Schedule Tribe (SC/ST) Prevention of Atrocities Act," Reddy said.

He further stated that nine people, including a juvenile, have been arrested. A report in The Indian Express quotes the police saying that the victim and the accused were all known to each other, the accused were also from the SC/ST community. Neither the reports nor the police mention that the victim's "wife and child" were killed, as the Twitter post claims.

The Verdict

The video is from Andhra Pradesh’s Ongole district and shows a tribal man being beaten up by his friends, according to reports and the police. Therefore, we have marked this claim as false.