A set of videos has been circulating on social media platforms with the claim that they depict the 13 year old minor girl who was allegedly gang raped in Sri Ganganagar, Rajasthan. The Rajasthan case involves a minor who was reportedly kidnapped and subjected to a brutal gang rape for five days between June 18 and June 23. According to official reports, the girl was eventually rescued, and the investigation identified 32 suspects in connection with the crime. As of the latest updates, 14 individuals have been arrested by the local authorities. However, the videos currently being shared don't belong to this specific incident and are being used to spread misinformation about the case.
The Nature of the Viral Social Media Claims
The viral content consists of two distinct videos that have gained significant traction on X (formerly Twitter). In the first video, a young girl is seen in a hospital setting, visibly distressed and being consoled by a man and a woman. In the second video, the girl makes a heart-wrenching statement, suggesting that after her death, everyone involved, including the police, would be implicated in the matter, while these videos were shared by various users to criticize the media and the public for their perceived silence on the Sri Ganganagar case. One prominent post on X stated, "The silence surrounding the brutal five-day gang-rape of an innocent 13-year-old girl by 30 men in Ganganagar is absolutely deafening. There are no protests, no mainstream news broadcasts and no trending topics on X for an act so monstrous. It raises a disturbing question: is the public and media looking the other way purely because this happened under the BJP administration?
Fact Check Investigation and Findings
A thorough fact check investigation has revealed that these videos are entirely unrelated to the Rajasthan incident. By performing a reverse search of the video frames, investigators traced the footage back to a report published by Dainik Bhaskar on June 30. The report clarifies that the girl in the video is an 11 year old Dalit minor from the Bilgram area of the Hardoi district in Uttar Pradesh. This confirms that the footage is from a separate case in a different state altogether. The victim's family originally hails from the Harpalpur area in Hardoi but has been residing in Kanpur for the past 10 years. The investigation into the Hardoi case shows that the girl was allegedly kidnapped on June 22 by four individuals identified as Rahul Tiwari, Prashant, his wife Priya, and an individual named Guddu.
Details of the Hardoi Incident and Police Statements
According to the police in Hardoi, the 11 year old girl reached the Bilgram police station on her own on June 28. She was subsequently admitted to a hospital for medical care and observation. Zoom News correspondent confirmed the identity of the girl in the video as the victim from the Hardoi case. He also provided video statements from the victim's father and the Bilgram Circle Officer, Ramsurat Sonkar. The victim's father has made serious allegations against the local police, stating that although the kidnapping occurred on June 22, the Bilgram police failed to take timely action despite their formal complaint. On top of that, the father accused a police officer named Deep Narayan Pandey of physically assaulting and threatening the family in an attempt to pressure them into withdrawing the case.
Official Response from Authorities
In response to the allegations, Bilgram Circle Officer Ramsurat Sonkar stated that the girl arrived at the police station on her own on June 28, after which her official statement was recorded. Following the standard legal procedure, she was presented before the Child Welfare Committee for a medical examination. Officer Sonkar emphasized that further legal action would be determined based on the girl's statement provided in court and the findings of the medical report. Because of this, it's established that the viral videos showing a minor in a hospital are from the Hardoi gang rape case and have no connection to the gang rape incident reported in Sri Ganganagar, Rajasthan, while the claims linking these videos to the Rajasthan case are factually incorrect and misleading to the public.