On October 23, alleged child activist Licypriya Kangujam’s smartphone was snatched in Greater Noida when she was Live on Facebook giving unsolicited advice on the Hindu festival Diwali. In her video, she linked Diwali to air and noise pollution.
#LicypriyaKangujam‘s smartphone was snatched while she was giving “unsolicited advice” on #Diwali by connecting the Hindu festival to pollution. Licypriya is also known as “Greta Thunberg of India”.
— Anurag (@LekhakAnurag) October 24, 2022
Video source: Licypriya’s Facebook Profile. pic.twitter.com/6HY0CpRhwZ
In a video published on her Twitter account that appears to have been clipped from the Facebook live video, she claimed that her heart aches when she watches people bursting crackers. She further urged people not to burst crackers as it hurts the environment. “It is not good for people and animals. If you think about your future generation and animals, I am not asking you to think about me, you will not burst crackers.”
My message to the country 🇮🇳 on Happy Diwali 2022.
— Licypriya Kangujam (@LicypriyaK) October 23, 2022
Let’s make it Green Diwali! 🙏🏻 pic.twitter.com/tgs4g7nRM6
Notably, Licypriya was in the United States in September to attend an event. On September 22, she published a photo cribbing about the high cab price in New York.
Taxi driver in New York asked me easily to pay 80$ for 5 km drive but it’s like one week earning for my family! pic.twitter.com/bUNtVHSxEY
— Licypriya Kangujam (@LicypriyaK) September 22, 2022
She sought help from Noida police in the matter on Twitter.
Hello @noidapolice!
— Licypriya Kangujam (@LicypriyaK) October 23, 2022
It’s very urgent. My mobile phone was just snatched away (10 minutes ago) by two bike borne thieves while I was going live on my facebook in front of the Bellana Street market, Greater Noida, Sector 16B opposite Nirala Aspire. Kindly help me! 🙏 😭
Licypriya ‘vanished’ from social media for almost a year when her father was jailed for fraud
Earlier this year, Licypriya’s social media accounts became active again after her father, an alleged conman accused of cheating dozens of students, was released on bail. Her father, KK Singh, was arrested in a joint operation by Delhi Police and Manipur police in May 2021. He was accused of cheating multiple people, with amounts as high as Rs 19 lakh. In 2015, he was arrested in Manipur with charges of criminal case number 176 of 2015 under Section 420 (Fraud), 324 (Assault), and 406 (Criminal breach of trust).
As per reports, a place he had rented in Porompat and carried out his clandestine activities under the Club 25 banner was allegedly sold to three different individuals without the knowledge of the real owner. Kanarjit was later released on interim bail and has been an absconder since.
Notably, he also invented the fake achievements of daughter Licypriya Kangujam in order to propel her to international fame. The child activist, over time, built a career out of protesting over anything and everything under the sun. Licypriya enjoys a verified account on Twitter, even though the profile says she does not handle it herself. Her verification was revoked due to inactivity during the period she was off social media, but it was reinstated at her request.
Hi @verified @TwitterSupport,
— Licypriya Kangujam (@LicypriyaK) April 9, 2022
My official Twitter account has been hacked and removed verified blue tick suddenly now. 😭
Please help me to add it again. 🙏
Among several fake achievements her father invented for her, one of the most notable was where she claimed to be on her way to UN HQ in Geneva to address a ‘global UN session’ for ‘Disaster Risk Reduction’. The news was widely reported, and she received a lot of appreciation on social media.
However, it turned out to be fake. After Imphal Free Press uncovered that not only was she not invited to the UN, but her father was also reported to be an alleged conman. An investigation by Imphal Free Press revealed that her entire ‘UN invite’ was a sham and a cooked-up story by her father, Kangujam Kanarjit. IFP got suspicious over the news item since when they investigated the claims, the UN event showed that registration for delegates was still on and the names of speakers weren’t confirmed yet.
In June 2021, it was reported that her father duped nearly 100 children from 12 countries under the garb of activism, as per a Vice report. The fraud amount is estimated to be approximately $44,685, just from fees collected from students.
Paojel Chaoba, a Manipuri investigative journalist, in an interview with the Vice, revealed how the ‘too good to be true’ tall claims made by Kanarjit Kangujam led to journalists flocking to his events.
In 2015, a Manipuri news outlet quoted Kangujam saying that politician and actor Arnold Schwarzenegger and now-ousted Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi would be attending a youth conference organized by International Youth Committee, a shady organization run by Kangujam where he portrayed his daughter as ‘India’s Greta Thurnberg’.
“Myanmar’s supreme leader visiting our small state sounded too wild to be true,” remarked Chaoba in the Vice report.
To add to this were other claims, including a supposed nomination for Licipriya to the “Global Youth Icon Award 2015” jointly with Malala Yousafzai (Nobel Peace Prize 2014 winner) and Felix Finkbeiner (German Child Activists).
Modus operandi of Kanarjit Kangujam
A source on the condition of anonymity informed OpIndia that Kangujam would create hoax events with well-drafted documents claiming that the UN, UNESCO, and the government of India are hosting an exchange program.
He would then call for participants, misusing the logos of the global entities. The proceeds of the participation fee would go into his personal account, informed the source.
Kangujam claimed to host events in Japan, Europe and Mauritius for which he collected hefty participation fees, however, the events never took place. When the volunteers called up the respective organizations and ministries to confirm the event, each one of them declined to know Kangujam or the so-called events planned by him.
When the participants asked for refunds, he declined, threatening elimination from the program, which would make them ineligible for any refunds, and passed every complaint to the volunteers to handle.
Licypriya’s father duped children in the name of ‘exchange programs’
As per a document shared by the source, Kangujam drafted budget documents to justify the participation fee. With this, he duped several Pakistani participants to the tune of $160 each, Bhutanese participants of $300-420 each, and Mauritian participants of €1200 each. As per the source, the participation fee varied per nationality and sometimes individually.
As per the Vice report, a legal complaint by Prajesh Khanal, a youth activist from Nepal, led to Kangujam’s arrest. “I only interacted with him on messenger and email, and to be honest, he looked very legit,” confessed the 20-year-old to Vice World News. Khanal was revealed to have paid over $460 for an exchange program, which is yet to be refunded.
Kangujam’s arrest led to more participants revealing how they were duped by the ‘activist’. Pallabi Roy, a dentist from Delhi, informed that she, along with her friend, paid $410 each in 2017 for an IYC event.
Licypriya Kangujam’s Ketto campaign
Additionally, Licypriya Kangujam’s Ketto campaign reeks of possible FCRA violation. We reported earlier how multiple discrepancies were found in a fundraising campaign being run by Licypriya and questionable association with Noble Citizen Foundation.
