A newspaper clipping of ‘The Boston’ is going viral on social media claiming that Congress leader Rahul Gandhi was detained at Boston Airport on charges of drug possession and carrying unaccountable cash in 2001.
The viral news was published on September 30, 2001, with the headline, “Indian Politician Arrested.”
A user on Facebook shared the clipping with the caption that is accusing Rahul Gandhi of being arrested at US- airport. The caption reads, “When Rahul Gandhi was arrested back in Boston for drugs. He was released after intervention by PM Vajpayee. Soniya begged and large-hearted Vajpayee spoke to US authorities. Now such shabby character wants to be PM. One can check newspaper clipping of Boston(USA)”
Source: Facebook
Fact Check:
We first checked that as the viral newspaper clipping makes reference to an AFP report but no such story was found in a keyword search on AFP’s archives between 2001 and 2002.
Again, using certain keywords for the investigation we landed on a fact check regarding the newspaper clipping published by AFP in January 2020. In the article, it was clearly mentioned that the newspaper clipping is fake and was digitally created using the website” fodey.com” (an online newspaper clipping generator through which users can create an article with their own story and headline.)
Then we reverse-searched the image and found that it shows the links of the same newspaper generator tool.
Again when we check any such report on Rahul Gandhi and found a report of The Hindu with the headline “Why Rahul Gandhi detained by FBI” dated September 30, 2001.
In this report, it was clearly mentioned that “With the U.S. security agencies leaving nothing to chance after the September 11 terrorist strikes, sleuths of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) “detained” Mr. Rahul Gandhi, son of the former Prime Minister, Rajiv Gandhi, and the Leader of the Opposition, Ms. Sonia Gandhi, for about an hour at the Boston airport early this week.”
Conclusion:
With the investigation, it is clear that the newspaper clipping was digitally created using a tool as no such incident took place. Hence, the newspaper clipping is fake and has no basis.
