Fact Check: Viral newspaper clipping on Punjab CM Bhagwant Mann is six years old, shared with misleading claim

New Delhi (Vishvas News): After the arrest of former Delhi minister Manish Sisodia, various photos and videos related to the Aam Aadmi Party are going viral on the internet. Now, a newspaper clipping about Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann is doing the rounds on the internet. The report in the clipping says that Mann stumbled and fell during a public meeting in Moga, Punjab. Vishvas News fact-checked the viral post and found this is a six-year-old news story, which is now being shared apparently to tarnish the image of Bhagwant Mann.

Claim:

Facebook user Nitish Yadav Kannauj posted (archive link) a cutting of the newspaper on February 28, writing, “The arrest of Manish Sisodia, a descendant of Maharana Pratap, has hurt this man the most.” Assuming the post to be true, other users are also sharing it.

Investigation:

Vishvas News first took the help of Google’s open search tool to find out the truth about the viral post. Upon searching with related keywords, a news report published on Bhaskar.com was found. The headline and content of the news report published six years ago was found to be the same as was written in the viral post, though the context in the viral post is misleading.

The news report by Bhaskar in Hindi said, “When Bhagwant Mann reached the public meeting in Moga Purani Anaj Mandi on Saturday, he kept on giving flying kisses to the crowd for 5 minutes. Then he stumbled and fell to the ground. Mann, during his speech, stumbled and stood with his back towards the people. As soon as the speech was over, he fell again. When he started going back, he again stumbled on the staircase but the security guard held him.”

The Punjab unit of the BJP had also shared this news report on its Twitter handle (Facebook) on January 30, 2017. Supreme Court lawyer Prashant Bhushan had also tweeted the same clipping of Bhaskar’s news report the same day.

Taking the investigation forward, Vishvas News contacted Satyen Ojha, Chief Reporter of Dainik Jagran, Moga, and shared the viral post related to Bhagwant Mann. He said this is a very old picture. No such incident has happened in the recent past, he added.

A social media scan showed that Facebook user Nitish Yadav Kannauj, who shared the newspaper clipping, is a resident of Kannauj in UP. His account is followed by 1,687 people, while the number of his friends on Facebook is more than 4,000.