This viral video of Virat Kohli is from the year 2017, when he raised voice about a mass molestation incident that took place during New Year’s Eve celebrations in Bengaluru.

On August 9, a postgraduate trainee doctor was allegedly raped and murdered while on duty at RG Kar Medical College in Kolkata, triggering nationwide strikes and protests by the medical community. A civic volunteer was arrested the following day in connection with the crime. In this scenario several top Indian cricketers like Shreyas Iyer, Suryakumar Yadav, and Harbhajan Singh have raised their voices for societal change following the alleged rape and murder of a trainee doctor.

Against this backdrop, a video now going viral shows Indian cricketer Virat Kohli condemning violence against women. The users who shared the video claim that Kohli has expressed his anger over the incident in Kolkata through this video.

In the video, Virat Kohli can be heard saying, “It’s disturbing, and it’s shocking, and I am ashamed to be a part of that society. I think we need to change our thinking and we need to treat men and women in the same way. Be respectful and treat women with some compassion. Something like this happens and for people to watch it and not do anything about it, I think it's a cowardly act. Those people have no right to call themselves men. I have only one question: If something like this happened, God forbid, to someone in your family, would you stand and watch or would you help?
Caption of the video states, “Listen What Virat Kohli Is Telling About Dr Moumita Cas And The Society We Live In”

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Fact Check-

A reverse image search on Google with the key frames of the video led us to the original video tweeted by Virat Kohli’s official Twitter handle in 2017. The cricketer posted it on 6 January, 2017. In this video, he starts by saying, “What happened in Bengaluru is really really disturbing.” In the viral video, the part mentioning Bengaluru was edited out.

In further search we found this video uploaded on NDTV’s official YouTube channel on 6 January, 2017. According to the information, “Virat Kohli Speaks Out Against Bengaluru Molestation Incident.

In 2017 some women were molested by mobs of men while taking part in New Year's Eve celebrations in Bangalore. We found several media reports from 2017 where the statement from the viral video was accredited to Virat Kohli. The Financial Express and Hindustan Times had also shared this video in 2017 with the same information.

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Meanwhile, we checked whether Virat Kohli made any remarks on Kolkata rape murder case, but we could not find any credible reports regarding the same.

Conclusion-

Fact Crescendo found that the claim made along with the viral video to be Misleading. This video of Virat Kohli is from the year 2017, when he raised voice about a mass molestation incident that took place during New Year’s Eve celebrations in Bengaluru. It has no link to the Kolkata incident.

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Title:Old video of Virat Kohli falsely shared linking to Kolkata rape-murder case.

Written By: Usha Manoj

Result: Misleading