A video of a woman walking through a room full of people as they greet her is going viral on social media platforms with multiple theories. While some say that the woman in the video is IAS officer Annies Kanmani Joy, others suggest that she is the Hathras victim.
In the video that has been shared numerous times on Facebook and Twitter, a Hindi song can be heard playing in the background as people bow down to touch the woman's feet and offer her flowers.
The claims
The first claim which is being made in regards to the clip is that the woman in it is Annies Kanmani Joy, Deputy Commissioner of Kodagu district, Karnataka. The captions say that she is being felicitated for putting in tremendous efforts and managing to curb the spread of COVID-19 in the district.
"She was a nurse at Trivandrum Medical College. She completed IAS and is posted as District Collector in Kodagu. Because of her nursing experience, she could help Kodagu district to totally come out of COVID. ANEES KANMANI JOY - she is getting special treatment from the people of Kodagu," wrote a Twitter user while sharing the video. The post has garnered more than 2,500 views till yet.
Smt. Annies Kanmani Joy became the first Nurse in Trivandrum to complete her IAS in 1992. She's posted as Disrict Collector in Kudagu, Karnataka. Because of her nursing experience, she could help Kudagu district to make it #COVID free. She's honoured by the people of Kodagu.? pic.twitter.com/ypjzrcHUER
— Arun Deshpande (@ArunDeshpande20) October 26, 2020
On the other hand, a section of social media users has linked the video with the dreaded Hathras gang rape case. Claims have been made that the woman in the clip is the Hathras victim and that she was being felicitated for topping her exams.
"Daughter of Hathras was a topper in studies and you should see the kind of welcome she received. This is the same daughter who was gang-raped and her tongue was cut, her eyes were gouged, her body was tortured and she was killed," read the caption of multiple Facebooks posts in Hindi.
The 19-year-old Dalit woman from western Uttar Pradesh's Hathras was allegedly raped and assaulted by four upper-caste men. She succumbed to her injuries in Delhi's Safdarjung hospital two weeks later.
Fact-check
Both the claims made regarding the video are false as the woman in the clip is a Senior Associate at a Hyderabad-based company. A reverse image search of the individual frames of the viral video revealed that the clip was originally uploaded on YouTube by a user named MD Adil Fayaz in February this year.
Upon tracing MD Adil Fayaz on Facebook, it was learnt that he is employed with a marketing and e-commerce firm called Safe Shop in Hyderabad. Fact-checking website Boom contacted the officials at Safe Shop who confirmed that the woman in the video is a Senior Associate with them. Further, they revealed that the men were touching her feet as part of a custom followed by the organisation.
Therefore, it can be concluded that the claims being made regarding the identity of the woman in the viral video are false.
