Fact Check: Was this Varanasi councillor kidnapped for not visiting his ward

New Delhi, July 04: A video of a man tied to a chair amidst a group raising slogans has gone viral on the social media.

The clip is being shared with the claim that the man tied to a chair is a councillor who never visited his ward after winning the elections. In Varanasi.

OneIndia has learnt that the claims are misleading. The councillor from Varanasi was not tied to the chair because he had not visited the ward after winning the elections. He was tied to the chair and made to sit in a flooded street because he did not take action to fix the sewage management system in his ward.

A report by Amar Ujala published on November 21 2022 identified the man as Tufail Ansari, councillor of ward number 79 of the Varanasi Municipal Corporation. The article said that the locals were outraged against the water logging in the area which resulted in the kidnap of the local representative.

The report said that the streets of Ambika Mandi were flooded by sewage water for a long time. The locals accused Ansari of not acting on their complaints despite repeated requests. Hence they forced Ansari to sit on the chair in the middle of the sewage water.

TV9 Bharatvarsh too had published a video of the same where the representative is seen tied to a chair and the people raising slogans.

Hence it can be concluded that Ansari was not tied to a chair and made to sit in the midst of water because he had not visited his constituency after winning the elections. The locals were venting their anger against him because he had not paid heed to their representation and repaired the sewage system.