Viral video: Lucknow woman set herself on fire outside BJP office

Claim

A video has gone viral on social media, showing a woman setting herself on fire, while a police officer tries to extinguish the flames nearby. It is being claimed that the woman set herself on fire in protest, outside the BJP (Bhartiya Janta Party) office in Lucknow, due to lack of justice.

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A verified user on social media site, X, advocate Deepak Babu shared a video claiming that a woman has set herself on fire. The distressed woman had went on to various authorities including the police station and district police headquarters, but no hearing or action took place. The user alleges that the UP police only serve BJP leaders and influential people. #UPGovt #UPPolice #BJP.

Another user, Ram Karan Nirmal tweeted on the incident at BJP office. People are fed up with lack of justice and government protecting the criminals.

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Another user, Ram Karan Nirmal, shared the video and mentioned that it is from the BJP office in Lucknow, where a woman attempted to set herself on fire. He attributes the reason for the self-immolation to the prevailing jungle raj and the culture of protecting criminals in the administration, which has resulted in the lack of justice during Yogi Adityanath’s government.

Fact Check

For the investigation of the claims made in the viral video, the DFRAC used the InVID tool to convert the video into keyframes and then ran a reverse image search. During this process, we found the same video on platform X, shared by user Sachin Gupta on 13 October 2020, with the caption, “In Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh, a woman named Anjana Tiwari set herself on fire at the gate of the Vidhan Sabha. She has been hospitalized in a critical condition. Anjana had converted to Islam and changed her name to Aisha. Her husband is in Saudi Arabia. The police are investigating.” #Luckhnow

A tweet from October 13, 2020 describing the real incident and gives the reason behind this self-immolation. The woman named Anjana Tiwari converted to Islam after marriage and changed her name to Aisha. Her Husband is in Saudi Arabia. Police is investigation on the matter. It is tweet by Sachin Gupta

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Further investigation revealed a report from Navbharat Times dated 14 October 2020, related to the incident. According to this report, Anjali Tiwari, a woman from Maharajganj, who attempted self-immolation in front of the BJP office near the Vidhan Sabha in Lucknow, died on Tuesday at the Civil Hospital. She previously sent a notice to the Maharajganj police regarding her intention to attempt self-immolation. Following this, she attempted self-immolation in front of the BJP office near the Vidhan Sabha in Lucknow. The police personnel on the spot managed to extinguish the flames on her body and admitted her to the hospital.

A news report from 14 October 2020 describing the self-immolation of Anjani Tiwari in front of BJP office near Vidhan Sabha. She died in the aftermath.

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In addition to this, we also found a tweet from the Lucknow Police, which states that the video in question is from 2020 and that the Hazratganj police had taken action on the matter at that time.

A clarification tweet by Lucknow Police on the viral video. They have said that this video is originally from 2020. The Hazratganj police has taken timely action on the matter.

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Conclusion

Therefore, DFRAC’s fact-check has made it clear that the viral video is misleading. This viral video does not inform about a current incident, but rather is from the year 2020.