This video actually shows an incident during Modi’s visit to New York in 2014

This article is more than one year old.
Published on September 24, 2020 at 11:30
2 min read
By AFP India

A video has been viewed tens of thousands of times in multiple posts on Facebook and Twitter alongside a claim it shows an Indian journalist assaulted after a controversial interview with a Bollywood actress implicated in her former partner’s suicide in August 2020. The claim, however is false: this video shows the journalist being stopped by guards during an event with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi in New York in 2014.

The 11-second video was published here on Facebook on August 29, 2020. It has been viewed more than 17,000 times.

(Screenshot of the misleading Facebook post)

The post’s Hindi caption translates to English as: “Rajdeep Sardesai, the news anchor who recently interviewed actress Rhea Chakraborty was beaten by a mob. I feel it was the right thing to have happened to him.”

Rajdeep Sardesai is a prominent news anchor in India, currently the face of India Today Television; Rhea Chakroborty is a Bollywood actress making headlines for her alleged involvement in a drugs case linked to the death of her former partner, the late actor Sushant Singh Rajput.

Sardesai recently conducted an exclusive interview with Chakroborty on India Today on August 27, 2020, as seen here on its YouTube channel.

The video has also been shared here, here and here on Facebook; and here and here on Twitter.

However, the claim is false.

A combined reverse image and keyword search on Google found a longer version of the video published here on the YouTube channel of Indian broadcaster ABP News, dated September 28, 2014.

The video description reads: “Ahead of PM’s Madison Square speech, Rajdeep Sardesai manhandled outside the venue.”

Indian Prime Minister Modi delivered a speech at New York’s Madison Square Garden on September 28, 2014, as part of his visit to the US.

Below is a screenshot comparison of the video in the misleading post (L) and the ABP news video (R):

According to this September 29, 2014 report by the New York Times, Sardesai “found himself in a strange clash of his own, exchanging pushes, insults and misdirected slaps with a man who had harassed him during his live report” outside the New York arena.

Sardesai also tweeted about the incident here on September 28, 2014.

Great crowd at Modison square garden! except a few idiots who still believe abuse is a way of proving their machismo! #ModiAtMadison
— Rajdeep Sardesai (@sardesairajdeep) September 28, 2014

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