Lighthouse Journalism found a video widely shared on social media platforms showing a Samajwadi Party leader’s clothes catching fire. It was sarcastically claimed that the leader went on the streets to burn an effigy of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, but instead, he himself caught fire.
During the investigation, we found that the viral claim was misleading and the video was old. The video shows an SP leader attempting suicide after he lost the 2022 elections.
Claim:
Instagram user Sagar Sarveshwar shared the viral video along with a misleading claim.
Other social media users are also sharing the same video with a similar claim.
Investigation:
We started the investigation by running a reverse image search on the keyframes obtained from the video, after uploading it to the InVid tool.
This led us to a video posted on the YouTube channel of NMT News three years ago.
The title of the video stated: UP Lukhnow: हार से निराश सपा नेता नरेंद्र सिंह उर्फ पिंटू ने की आत्मदाह की कोशिश | अस्पताल में भर्ती
Translation: Disappointed with the defeat, SP leader Narendra Singh alias Pintu tried to commit suicide. Admitted to hospital
We then ran a keyword search and checked news reports for the incident.
We found several news reports about the same.
Reports stated: A leader from Kanpur immolated himself in a bid to end his life outside the Vidhan Bhawan in Lucknow on Thursday, police said. They added that Narendra Singh alias ‘Pintu’, who suffered 30% burns, is undergoing treatment at a civil hospital and doctors said he was out of danger. Narendra Singh, who is also a businessman, is SP’s Kanpur unit vice president, and was reportedly upset over the party’s defeat in the Assembly election.
Conclusion: An Old video of SP leader Narendra Singh, immolating himself in Lucknow, is now going viral as recent. The viral claim is misleading.
