Lighthouse Journalism came across a video being circulated on social media platforms, where Tamil Nadu BJP President K Annamalai was seen crying. It was claimed in the post that the video was taken after the election results were declared. During the investigation we found the claim to be false. The video is old and was taken during his visit to an old age home.
Claim:
X user Tapabrata Jana shared the video on his profile.
Check the archive version of the post.
Other users too are sharing the viral video claiming it to be recent.
Investigation:
We started our investigation by uploading the video in the InVid tool and obtaining several keyframes from the same. We then ran a reverse image search on these keyframes.
After running a reverse image search on the keyframes we found the video uploaded on Polimer News.
The video was uploaded on April 17, 2024.
We also found the video uploaded on PuthiyathalaimuraiTV.
The video was also uploaded on the YouTube channel of Dinamalar. The video was streamed a month ago.
We found a YouTube short on ‘So South’, which mentioned that Annamalai broke down while addressing senior citizens in Coimbatore.
We also found a report on Hindu Tamil.
The report mentioned that Annamalai, received blessings from elders at Nana and Nani old age home in Coimbatore. After this he said, “I have not come to collect votes from you. I have come to seek your blessings. Like the love seen here, on our way to the campaign many elders waited for more than two hours to wash my feet and bless me.
The report was uploaded on 17th April, 2024.
Conclusion: Old video of Tamil Nadu BJP president K Annamalai breaking down at an old age home in Coimbatore is now being shared as recent video post election results. Viral claim is false.
