An old video of Ajay Maken, treasurer of the Indian National Congress, speaking about the liquor policy case and accused the Aam Aadmi Pary (AAP)has been revived as recent amid Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal's arrest.
BOOM found that the video is old and unrelated to Kejriwal's recent arrest.
Arvind Kejriwal was arrested on March 21, 2024, by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) for his alleged connection to the liquor policy case. Other senior party members including Manish Sisodia and Sanjay Singh have also been accused of taking kickbacks in exchange for liquor licenses in the same case and remain in jail to this day. After Kejriwal withdrew a petition to quash his arrest from the Supreme Court, he was produced in the Rouse Avenue Court in Delhi on March 22 which placed him in the ED's custody for seven days.
A two-minute long video of Congress leader Maken speaking about the Delhi liquor policy case and accusing the AAP of using kickbacks to fund their election campaign in Goa is viral online. Amit Malviya, national convener of BJP's IT Cell shared the video with the caption, "Congress’s Ajay Maken explaining why Arvind Kejriwal has been arrested. @RahulGandhi"
BOOM has previously debunked several other false posts shared by Malviya. Read here.
Click here to view the post and here for an archive.
The post is also being shared with similar captions on Facebook.
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FACT CHECK
BOOM found that the viral video is from February 2023 and unrelated to Kejriwal's recent arrest.
We ran a reverse image search of some key frames from the viral video on Google and found a report published by NDTV Hindi on February 4, 2023. The headline of the reported, translated roughly from Hindi reads, "Delhi Excise Policy: Congress demands resignation of CM Kejriwal, asks accused ministers to step down"
The feature image used in this story matched the visuals in the viral video.
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According to this report, Maken accused the AAP of misappropriation of funds and demanded the resignation of the senior leaders named in the ED's chargesheet in the case.
Taking a hint from the date of this report, we ran a search for any press conferences addressed by Maken on February 4, 2023 and found a video shared on the Indian National Congress' verified YouTube channel. The video was titled 'Full PC Congress | Ajay Makan | Lokpal | Arvind Kejriwal | Delhi Liquor Scam | 100 Crore Scam' and was an exact match to the viral video.
The portion of the viral video begins at the 6:54 mark of the original video.
Click here for an archive.
In July 2023, the AAP and INC, along with 24 other political parties formed an alliance called the 'INDIA' bloc to contest against the BJP in the 2024 general elections. Several leaders from this bloc including Priyanka Gandhi Vadra and Akhilesh Yadav expressed their concerns regarding Kejriwal's arrest and accused the BJP of "weakening democracy."