Fact-check: Is viral video actual footage of a ‘hatman’ killing woman in Mumbai? – Alt News

A 1:34-minute-long CCTV camera clip is being widely circulated on social media in which viewers can see a woman getting down from a car outside a residential complex and as the car goes away, a man in a black hat grabs her from behind and stabs her to death. He then drags her body away behind the parked cars. The clip is being shared with the claim that it is an incident from Mumbai’s Andheri, and has been given the title “#HatmanKillerInMumbai”.

User @sandeepkishore_ shared the clip on Twitter with a caption in Hindi that can be translated as, “A very horrific incident came to light in a leaked CCTV footage from a locality in Andheri where a man in a black hat was seen brutally killing a woman. He is being referred to as #HatmanKillerInMumbai. Be alert everyone.” He later deleted the tweet.

Hussain Sultania, who according to his Twitter bio is the national secretary of the National Students’ Union of India (NSUI), also shared the clip on Twitter with a similar caption.

News18 journalist Ankit Kumar has also shared the clip on Twitter with the #HatmanKillerInMumbai.

Others who have shared the clip include Zafar Saifi, Wasim Akram Tyagi, Jibraan Uddin, and Mohammad Altaf Ali.

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IndiaTV also reported about the viral clip without any additional information other than what is available from the tweets.

Fact-check

We noticed that the CCTV footage shows the date “5-11-22” i.e., the clip is at least a week-old, but we could not find any reliable news reports of such a a crime taking place in Mumbai. This showed the possibility that the date in the footage could be wrong. Then we found that speaking to the media, Mumbai Police had clarified that no such killing had taken took place in the city. This statement was also reported by Aaj Tak.

While analyzing the video we noticed a couple of things that seemed unusual:

1. When the person playing the video is asked to zoom into the ‘killer’, it takes him just a fraction of a second to do that. And the zoomed footage does not appear to be pixelated at all. It retains the same quality.
2. 2. At 0:45-seconds, the computer operator is asked to play the dashcam footage of a car. Again, this footage is played within a fraction of a second.

Alt News also noticed the word ‘Maarrich’ [a demon in the Hindu epic Ramayana] written in the viral footage in the first few seconds.

Taking this clue, we performed a keyword search on Twitter and came across a tweet by one Dewang Trivedi according to whom, the viral clip is a promotional tactic for an upcoming film Maarrich.

Maarrich is an upcoming film by Actor/Producer Tusshar Kapoor, the promo of which was shared by Kapoor on Twitter on September 13. According to India Today, Kapoor would be playing the role of a cop in the film. The spelling of the word ‘Maarrich’ and the bits and pieces of information available in the public domain all point towards the fact that the viral clip is possibly a promotional tactic for this film.

Alt News has reached out to NH Studioz via mail for comments regarding the viral clip. A message request has also been sent to Tusshar Kapoor’s social media manager regarding the same. The story will be updated if we receive a response.

Alt News reached out to one of the individuals who shared the clip and later deleted it. They said on the condition of anonymity that they had posted it as part of a paid promotion. Though they could not ascertain whether it was for the film ‘Maarrich’.

To summarize, in all probability, a viral CCTV footage in which a man in a black hat can be seen brutally attacking a woman is linked to the upcoming film ‘Maarrich’. The Mumbai Police has clarified that no such killing took place in the city.

Alt News has in the past debunked several such scripted CCTV videos. Related reports can be found here.

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