Old video of actor Akshay Kumar falsely shared as his reaction to Manipur sexual assault incident

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

Context

Dozens of men in the Indian state of Manipur stripped two women naked before parading and sexually assaulting them on May 4, a day after ethnic clashes erupted between the Meitei and Kuki communities in the northeastern state. A 26-second video of the horrific incident showing the mob parading the naked women emerged earlier this week, triggering nationwide outrage. According to media reports, in her complaint to the police, one of the survivors alleged that the mob gang-raped her and also killed her father and brother.

The incident was condemned by several politicians, journalists, and members of the public, who demanded swift action against the perpetrators. Amid these developments, a video of Bollywood actor Akshay Kumar purportedly denouncing a sexual assault incident is widely circulating on social media. Several users have linked the video to the Manipur incident. One user shared the video with the caption, “Akshay Kumar Speaks About #ManipurViolence #Manipur…” This post alone had been viewed more than 820,000 times and had garnered over 5,940 retweets at the time of publishing. Other posts with similar claims had also raked in thousands of views. Archived versions of such posts can be accessed here and here.

However, it's an old video and is unrelated to the Manipur incident.

In Fact

A reverse image search using the clip’s keyframes led us to a video report posted by NDTV on its YoutTube channel on January 5, 2017. The video was titled, "Akshay Kumar's Video On Bengaluru Molestation Has Gone Viral." Clipped versions of this video are being shared online in the aftermath of the Manipur sexual assault incident. According to the video description, in a video posted on Twitter, Kumar “shared his outrage over the molestation of women in Bengaluru on New Year's Eve, comparing the attackers to "beasts.”

We found the original video that Kumar had posted on his Twitter account on January 5, 2017. The full video is more than two minutes long and has Kumar explicitly mentioning that he is referring to an incident in Karnataka’s capital Bengaluru (also called Bangalore). The video caption read, "The Bangalore incident makes me feel we are evolving backwards, from humans to animals, rather beasts because even animals are better! Truly shameful."

Kumar’s video on Twitter was in response to a case of ‘mass molestation’ of women that occurred in Bengaluru on New Year’s Eve in 2017. According to a report by The Indian Express, thousands of men mobbed, groped, and trash-talked several women in the streets in the presence of police personnel deployed ahead of New Year celebrations. The incident took place in Bengaluru’s most bustling areas of MG Road and Brigade Road. The incident had gained nationwide attention at the time.

Though the viral video is not recent and was shared by Kumar over six years ago, the actor did publicly react to the disturbing video from Manipur. In a tweet on July 20, he said, “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.”

The investigation in the May 4 sexual assault case is ongoing, and as of Friday, the Manipur Police had made at least four arrests.

The Verdict

Akshay Kumar had posted the video in 2017 in response to an incident of molestation of several women in Bengaluru. The video is not related to the unrest in Manipur. Hence, we rate this claim as false.