Did Someone Die & Eight Female Students Attempt Suicide At Chandigarh University MMS Leak Case? No, Viral Claim Is Misleading!

Following reports of leaked objectionable videos of women students in the private Chandigarh University, hundreds of students held a protest on the Ludhiana-Chandigarh highway. In this context, media outlets and netizens claimed that eight university students attempted suicide after leaking the objectionable videos.

On 18 September, a 22-year-old girl student and her 23-year-old friend were apprehended as the accused in the Chandigarh University 'leaked' video case.

Claim:

Media outlets such as Zee News and OpIndia circulated the following claim with their headlines. These media outlets claimed that in the girl's hostel of Chandigarh University, a female student secretly filmed a video of 60 girls taking a bath and sent it to a man. This led to eight female students allegedly attempting suicide.

Twitter handles, Latestly, and THV News shared a similar claim alleging that one female student died by suicide as eight girls attempted suicide.

Fact Check:

The Logical Indian fact-check team verified the viral claim and found it to be false. No incidents of suicide were reported at Chandigarh University.

We conducted a keyword search with the relevant terms, 'Chandigarh University'. We came across this report by the Hindustan Times published on September 18, 2022.

The Hindustan Times report noted that a 22-year-old girl student and her 23-year-old friend were arrested on September 18. The report quotes Punjab's additional director general of police, Gurpreet Deo, who says that the girl shared only a video of herself with the youth. "No objectionable video of any other student was found," the Hindustan Times report notes.

We then conducted another keyword search and came across a report by The Indian Express published on September 18, 2022. The report quotes the Mohali police saying that a case under Section 66E of the Information Technology Act (punishment for violation of privacy) and section 354C regarding voyeurism under the Indian Penal Code has been lodged against the woman at Kharar (Sadar) police station.

The Indian Express report quotes Amit Talwar, the Mohali Deputy Commissioner, who said there was "no reality" in the alleged attempted suicides. Talwar is noted as saying that some of the girls had fainted and were provided medical assistance.

The Indian Express report also quotes Mohali Senior Superintendent of Police, Vivek Sheel Soni, who said the woman had admitted that she sent her objectionable photographs to her friend. The police were verifying whether she had sent pictures of other girls as well.

Reportedly, the Mohali SSP said, "I want to make it clear that we did not get any video of the other women. We are also not giving the clean chit to anyone. The prime accused has been arrested and we have confiscated the equipment."

In our Fact Check, we came across this tweet by the news agency, ANI. The tweet's caption reads, "No death reported related to this incident. As per medical records, no attempt (to commit suicide) is reported: SSP Mohali Vivek Soni"

In the video statement, Soni says, "I request through your platform to not spread rumours. There is no instance of anyone dying. There were several videos going viral on this incident. However, there is no indication of any death among the students. So far, no attempt to suicide has come to our notice. Medical records of students are being obtained."

We also found the statement of Mohali DC Amit Talwar in this matter. While talking to the media, he said, "There was misinformation that several girls have committed suicide over the video which is completely false. One girl fainted due to anxiety following which she was taken to the hospital which was misrepresented as a suicide attempt."

Conclusion:

Media outlets and netizens claimed that one female student died by suicide as eight girls attempted suicide after objectionable videos of female students were leaked at Chandigarh University.

In our Fact Check, we found that the 22-year-old girl student and her 23-year-old friend who spread the videos were arrested on September 18 and that the girl shared only a video of herself with the youth.

The Mohali police said that there is no instance of anyone dying in this incident, nor is there any occurrence of eight female students attempting suicide. Thus, we found that the viral claim is misleading.

If you have any news that you believe needs to be fact-checked, please email us at factcheck@thelogicalindian.com or WhatsApp at 6364000343.

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