After the tragic incident of stampede at Mumbai’s Elphinstone railway station last week that claimed 23 lives and injured many more, a video of an alleged molestation sparked outrage on social media over the weekend.
Many media portals (including ScoopWhoop) carried a story based on a report by The Hindu which allegedly showed a man trying to ‘molest’ a woman trapped while lying on the foot-over bridge.
Here is the 8-second video which was the basis of the molestation story carried by The Hindu:
Many portals, including us, carried the story:
But now, a longer video of the incident has emerged on Twitter which debunks the allegations of molestation. The 43-second-long video shows that the man was most probably trying to help the woman.
As the new video shows, the man in question is in full public glare and the spot he is present at, is being clicked and captured on mobile phones by passersby. This anyway makes it highly unlikely that the man would attempt such a thing.
People are strongly reacting to it on Twitter and are demanding an apology from the media:
The incident is a shocking example of how media houses (including us) fall for news stories without verifying facts. The source being a credible mainstream outlet like The Hindu made it believable when it was not.
We admit that it’s very unfortunate that an eight-second incomplete video unfairly labelled a man as a ‘molester’ and we admit to our error in judgement. At a time when Mumbai is still recovering from the tragedy, such reports only add up the agony of people.
Update: The Hindu has apologised for the incorrect story:
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