DigitEye India Fact Checkers
Bollywood actor Akshay Kumar’s condemnation of incidents of two tribal women being paraded naked in Manipur and allegedly gang-raped prior to the incident has hit headlines but one video surfaced on social media claiming that it captures what the actor said.
He felt very bad about the #ManipurIncident #AkshayKumar #Manipur_Violence #ManipurBurning #ManipurHorror #ManipurViralVideo #ManipurRiots pic.twitter.com/U67PH6fQct
— News Mentor (@Motivating_M) July 21, 2023
The video shared with the caption reads:”Akshay Kumar spoke about the incident in Manipur.” (In Hindi: मणिपुर घटना पर बोले अक्षय कुमार…….|) It is being shared on Twitter here and here.
The context is about July 19 developments when the Manipur incident hit headlines and widely condemned across the country with the Supreme Court intervening and asking the government to take action within ten days.
FACT CHECK
When we received the request for fact-checking, we searched on Google Reverse Image Search taking a few frames out of the video and found that the video was of Akshay Kumar when he reacted to women being molested in Bengaluru on New Year’s Eve in 2017.
Shared by the actor himself on his official Twitter handle @akshaykumar in 2017, the original video with a caption reads:”The Bangalore incident makes me feel we r evolving backwards, from humans to animals,rather beasts coz even animals are better!Truly shameful.”
The Bangalore incident makes me feel we r evolving backwards,from humans to animals,rather beasts coz even animals are better!Truly shameful pic.twitter.com/FJwJ80Mkby
— Akshay Kumar (@akshaykumar) January 5, 2017
As a father of a daughter, he said that society is not expected to call itself human if it cannot respect women and goes with the old mindset of judging women based on their clothes.
The old video has surfaced again and is being falsely linked to Akshay Kumar’s reaction to the Manipur incident. According to news reports, the incident occurred on May 4, 2023 in the Kangpokpi district, near Imphal though it hit the social media platforms in July.
The women reportedly belonged to the ethnic Kuki-Zo tribe while the assaulters were Meiteis. Manipur Police has claimed that so far four people who were allegedly part of the mob that forced the women to parade naked have been arrested.
Shaken, disgusted to see the video of violence against women in Manipur. I hope the culprits get such a harsh punishment that no one ever thinks of doing a horrifying thing like this again.
— Akshay Kumar (@akshaykumar) July 20, 2023
Akshay Kumar did react to the Manipur incident on July 20, 2023 when he tweeted:”Shaken, disgusted to see the video of violence against women in Manipur. I hope the culprits get such a harsh punishment that no one ever thinks of doing a horrifying thing like this again,” but did not share any video this time.
Hence, the video being shared pertains to his reaction in 2017 and not to the Manipur incident as claimed.
Claim: Video claims actor Akshay Kumar reacting to the Manipur incidnet of tribal women being paraded naked.
Conclusion: No, old video of Akshay Kumar’s reaction to Bangalore women being molested passed off as of Manipur.
Rating: Misrepresentation — 
