CLAIM
Two images of Zee News anchor Sudhir Chaudhary with a nose injury and shattered panels of a workspace are circulating on social media with a claim that the office of Zee News was attacked after the anchor called the Delhi voters freeloaders.
After the exit polls had predicted a win for the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), Chaudhary went on a rant during his prime time show ‘DNA’ calling Delhi voters freeloaders who have been swayed by AAP’s freebie politics.
The post has been shared by a Facebook page ‘Beware of Froud Media’ which reads, “दिल्ली के लोगों को मुफ्तखोर और गद्दार कहने पर भड़की जनता ने ज़ी न्यूज़ के ऑफिस पर किया हमला I” [Translation: People attacked Zee News office for calling Delhi people freeloaders and traitors.]
The aforementioned post on Facebook had garnered over 5,600 shares at the time of writing this story and is being widely shared on Facebook.
The image has been shared on Twitter too with a caption that reads, “People attacked Zee News office for calling Delhi people freeloaders and traitors. Is this correct? If this is true, my country really is changing.”
TRUE OR FALSE?
The image of Sudhir Chaudhary is from 2019 and the image of shattered panels is from 2017. Though both the images are real, they have been clubbed together to use it in the current context to imply that people attacked the office of Zee News.
These images went viral after Sudhir Chaudhary talked about exit polls on his channel, post-Delhi elections 2020.
WHAT WE FOUND OUT
IMAGE 1
A Google reverse-search on Sudhir Chaudhary’s image directed us to multiple reports related to his nose injury. We found the same image in an article by Samachar4India from 12 July 2019. According to the article, Sudhir Chaudhary met with an accident in Mumbai.
Sudhir Chaudhary also uploaded a video on Facebook where he thanked his fans and said that doctors have advised him to rest which is why he is unable to come to the office.
IMAGE 2
On conducting a Google-reverse search on the second image, The Quint came across an article by Mumbai Live, which said four MNS workers were arrested in 2017 for vandalising Congress office near Azad Maidan.
Taking a cue from there, we searched on YouTube with the keywords ‘MNS workers vandalised Congress office 2017’.
We then came across several videos with the same frame and one such video was uploaded by ANI stating that the Congress office near Mumbai’s Azad Maidan was vandalised by workers of Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) on 2 December 2017.
Furthermore, a Twitter advanced search redirected us to a tweet dated 1 December 2017 by news agency ANI which said that unidentified people vandalised Mumbai Congress office.
Therefore, the two images being circulated with the claim that people attacked Zee News office is false.
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