A viral image showing National Democratic Alliance's (NDA) presidential candidate Draupadi Murmu alongside Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) chief Mohan Bhagwat, is morphed and fake.
The doctored image shows Murmu - the former governor of Jharkhand, and Bharatiya Janata Party member, standing next to Bhagwat who can be seen paying his respects to a portrait of Bharat Mata.
The fake image was also shared by Supreme Court lawyer Prashant Bhushan.
"BJP's presidential candidate Draupadi Murmu visits Mohan Bhagwat at the RSS headquarters in Nagpur! Is there any doubt that she will just be a rubber stamp and not be able to function independently,?" Bhushan claimed.
The image also contains a caption in Hindi which translates to, 'Shrimati Draupadi Murmu visited RSS's Nagpur headquarters and met Shri Mohan Bhagwat'.
(श्रीमती द्रौपदी मुर्मू ने आरएसएस मुख्यालय नागपुर का दौरा किया और श्री मोहन भागवत जी से मुलाकात की)
Prashant Bhushan's Facebook post sharing the fake image
Murmu, a tribal leader from Odisha, is the first person belonging to a scheduled tribe to be nominated for the position.
ALSO READ: From Councillor To Governor, Draupadi Murmu Is India's 1st Tribal Presidential Candidate
The fake image is also circulating on Facebook. (View the same
here and
here)
FACT CHECK
BOOM found that the image is morphed and has been created by digitally inserting a cutout of Draupadi Murmu into the photo.
A reverse image search of the photo on Russian search engine Yandex showed search results of a similar looking photo with Mohan Bhagwat appearing on the right side of the frame.
This indicates that the viral fake image has been created by changing the orientation of the photo i.e. flipping the photo horizontally. This is usually done so that a reverse image search does not detect the photo.
Reverse image search results
We flipped the photo and did another reverse image search, this time using Google, and found a number of news articles from March this year about RSS's annual meet.
Reverse image search results after flipping the fake photo
We found the original image but without Murmu, on RSS's website.
The article stated the photo was taken at the Akhil Bharatiya Pratinidhi Sabha of RSS on March 11, 2022 in Karnavati, Gujarat.
Original photo on RSS's website
A comparison of the viral fake image and the photo on RSS's website can be seen below. Murmu is not seen in the original image.
Comparison between the viral fake photo and the original photo. The viral image has been flipped horizontally
Using the same technique we first cropped out Draupadi Murmu's image from the viral photo and horizontally flipped it before running a reverse image search on it.
Reverse image search results for Draupadi Murmu's image
We found the same image in a BBC Hindi story. The photo showed Murmu meeting Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren. Using a keyword search we found a December 2020 tweet on Soren's timeline featuring the photo.
A comparison between the two images can be seen below.
Comparison between Draupadi Murmu's photo in the viral image and her photo in the original image.