A photo of Congress leader Rahul Gandhi with a woman is being shared with the false claim that she is from Colombia and they are secretly married with two children.
Mahesh Vikram Hegde, one of the co-founders of Postcard News also tweeted false claim on Thursday that Congress leader Rahul Gandhi is secretly married and has two children named Niyak and Mainak.
BOOM had debunked the same false claim in 2019 and had found that the woman in the viral photo is a Spanish-American actress. The picture with Gandhi was taken at an event in Los Angeles, United States in 2017.
The fake claim attributes its source to Wikileaks
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Hegde tweeted the photo of the two with the caption, "My sources reveal that Rahul Gandhi is married to this lady! They both have a son named Niyak & daughter Mainak! Now very soon the PIDIs will chant "Hamare agle nayak Niyak Gandhi hoga"."
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Hegde has in the past shared several pieces of fake news and misinformation from his social media accounts. BOOM has debunked fake news spread by Postcard News a website co-founded by Hegde.
Also Read: No, A Maulvi Did Not Preside Over Priyanka Gandhi Vadra's Wedding
FACT-CHECK
BOOM had previously debunked the same claim when the viral photo was being shared in April 2019 falsely claiming that a Wikileaks cable had revealed that Congress leader Rahul Gandhi got married to a Colombian woman and has two children living in London.
Also Read: Did WikiLeaks Reveal Rahul Gandhi's Secret Family In London? A FactCheck
On running a reverse image we found that the woman in the photo is Nathalia Ramos a Spanish-American actress appearing in television series.
Ramos had posted the picture along with Gandhi in an Instagram post dated September 15, 2017. The two met at an event at the Berggruen Institute in Los Angeles in September 2017.
The post read, "Last night with the eloquent and insightful @rahulgandhi. I feel so blessed to have the opportunity to meet and listen to so many brilliant thinkers from all parts and perspectives of the world. It is only with an open mind and open heart that we can really make the world a better place. Thank you @berggrueninst for opening mine. #IdeasMatter "
She also tweeted the photo at the time.