Fact-Check: No, This Is Not an Engagement Photo of Smriti Irani’s Daughter Zoish
The woman getting engaged in the photo is Shanelle Irani, Smriti Irani's stepdaughter.
The photo shows Shanelle Irani, Zubin Irani's daughter with his first wife.
(Source: Facebook/Altered by The Quint)
After Union Minister Smriti Irani's daughter Zoish Irani came under scrutiny for allegedly running an "illegal bar" in Goa's Assagao, a photograph of a couple celebrating their engagement is going viral on social media, claiming that it shows 18-year-old Zoish's engagement in December 2021.
Social media users are sharing a set of photos, including a screenshot of a post from Smriti Irani's verified Instagram profile, with the claim that it shows the crime of "child marriage."
However, the claim is false. We checked the post whose screenshot is being circulated, and found that the Union minister had tagged one Shanelle Irani, and not Zoish in the post.
Shanelle is Smriti Irani's stepdaughter, who is Zubin Irani and his first wife Mona Irani's daughter.
CLAIM
The photographs are being shared with Hindi text, which claims that Irani has been defending a daughter by saying that she is only 18-year-old and is a student.
It then questions a post made by the Union minister on 25 December 2021, where Irani shared photos celebrating her daughter's engagement, stating that she was supporting child marriage.
An archive of this post can be seen here.
WHAT WE FOUND OUT
We looked for the photographs in question on Smriti Irani's verified Instagram account, where we found that the post in question was shared on 25 December 2021.
The posts' caption congratulated one Arjun Bhalla, welcoming him to the family, and blessed one Shanelle Irani. The caption also tagged Shanelle's account.
The post's caption tagged the account '@shanelleirani'.
The post shared two of the photographs shared in the claim.
(Note: Swipe right to view both photos.)
The post shared two photos of a couple's engagement.
The post shared two photos of a couple's engagement.
We saw that the person tagged as Shanelle, did not resemble Irani's daughter Zoish.
A comparison of Zoish and Shanelle Irani's photos.
However, we found several posts that referred to Shanelle Irani as 'daughter.'
We looked up the Hindi text being shared in one screenshot from the set of photos in the claim, and were led to a Hindi news article by Aaj Tak, dated 26 December 2021, which carried the same photo and caption. The report discussed Shanelle Irani's background and engagement.
One of the photos from the set in the claim was taken from an Aaj Tak article.
We then looked up Shanelle Irani, and found multiple news reports regarding her engagement announcement. One such article by Times of India mentioned that Shanelle is the daughter of Zubin Irani with his first wife, Mona Irani.
Shanelle Irani is Smriti Irani's step-daughter.
Evidently, Smriti Irani's stepdaughter Shanelle Irani was misidentified as Zoish Irani, who allegedly owns the 'Silly Souls Cafe and Bar'.
The restaurant has been the subject of controversies over the legality of its construction and "illegal bar license".
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