An old video showing Congress leaders Rahul Gandhi, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, and actor Amitabh Bachchan at an airport is being shared on social media.
The claim: The video, which shows the Gandhi siblings hugging each other, is being shared to claim that it shows an old video where Bachchan had to go bring Rahul Gandhi back from the USA after he was caught in a “drugs case,” but was released on the then-Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s demand.
How do we know?: A simple reverse image search led us to an Instagram post which had shared the same video.
It’s caption noted that it showed Rahul Gandhi returning to India after his father, former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi’s assassination.
Since this video bore Getty Images’s watermark, we looked for these visuals on Getty’s website.
We came across a longer version of the video in question there, which also showed other visuals of Priyanka Gandhi and Jaya Bachchan, and the siblings near their father’s mortal remains.
The video, published on 24 May 1991, was uploaded with a caption which mentioned Rajiv Gandhi’s funeral, and “Priyanka greeting brother Rahul.”
A keyword search for more information about his arrival with Amitabh Bachchan led us to a Times of India report dated 24 July 2011.
It said that Bachchan was in UK’s London when Rajiv Gandhi was assassinated, and Rahul Gandhi was in Boston, USA. “They landed in Delhi together from London,” it said.
Was Rahul Gandhi detained on drug charges?: This part of the claim comes from a previously debunked false claim, which carried a fabricated newspaper clipping about an Indian politician being arrested in the US over possession of drugs.
The Quint, in its 2019 fact-check, had found that the clipping had been created using a template on a website.
A source-based article by The Hindu, dated 29 September 2001, mentioned that Gandhi reportedly been detained by FBI officials at the Boston airport for about an hour, while enroute to Washington, "who would not let him go even after checking his travel documents thoroughly."
It noted that it happened due to "heightened security precautions" in the US, in the aftermath of the 9/11 terror attacks and that several people were being subject to layers of security checks and intese questioning by the authorities.
Conclusion: An old video of Rahul Gandhi, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, and Amitabh Bachchan is being shared to falsely claim that it shows Rahul Gandhi arriving in India after being detained on drug charges.
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