Old video from Uttar Pradesh shared as fake voters arrested in Madhya Pradesh

(Editor's note: The story was first published on November 27, 2023 and is being republished from Logically Facts' archives in the light of the video recirculating ahead of the 2024 Indian general elections.)

What is the claim? 

A video circulating on social media after the Madhya Pradesh Assembly elections, held on November 17, 2023, purportedly shows two burkha-clad women in Madhya Pradesh being arrested for attempting to cast fraudulent votes.

One such post accompanying the video was captioned, “MP Police catering to fake voters in Madhya Pradesh. Modiji has made the internet cheap just to make such videos viral. #MPElections2023 (sic).” An archived version of this post can be accessed here.

Several other users also shared similar posts on X (Archived versions here and here). 

Screenshots of the viral posts. (Source: X/Screenshot/Modified by Logically Facts)

However, we found that this video is old and unrelated to the 2023 Madhya Pradesh Assembly elections.

What did we find? 

A close examination of these viral posts reveals suggestions from users that the video originated in Uttar Pradesh. A reverse image search of keyframes from the video located identical posts from February 2022, also claiming Uttar Pradesh as the point of origin. These posts predate the Madhya Pradesh elections by more than a year.

Screenshots of the February 2022 posts with the viral video. (Source: X/Screenshot)

Further investigation online using relevant keywords uncovered a Navbharat Times report from February 14, 2022, about the arrest of two burkha-wearing women by Uttar Pradesh's Rampur police.

Similar reports exist in other Hindi news outlets. A News 18 Hindi report quotes Rampur's District Election Officer Ravindra Kumar Mander: “Two women have been caught while voting as fake voters at the polling center located at the Raza Degree College. During the investigation, their address was not found to be correct (sic).”

He added that the apprehended women were mother and daughter and faced legal proceedings. The Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections were conducted in several stages from February 10 to March 7, 2022, affirming that the video is unrelated to the 2023 Madhya Pradesh elections.

The verdict

The viral video showing the arrest of two burkha-clad women is from Uttar Pradesh, not Madhya Pradesh. The incident occurred in Rampur, Uttar Pradesh, in February 2022, during the Assembly elections there. The claim linking this video to the 2023 Madhya Pradesh elections is, therefore, false.