On 1 July, Zee News’s DNA programme, which aired at 9 pm anchored by Rohit Ranjan, reported that Rahul Gandhi called the accused “children” who killed Kanhaiya Lal.
Kanhaiya Lal, a tailor, was beheaded in Rajasthan’s Udaipur in broad daylight on 28 July. Lal had allegedly put up a social media post in support of suspended BJP spokesperson Nupur Sharma. The two accused, Riyaz Akhtari and Ghouse Mohammad, were arrested within six hours of the incident.
However, we investigated that Rahul Gandhi never called the accused “children”. Gandhi is in on a three-day visit to his parliamentary constituency Wayanad. After visiting his MP office, which was allegedly vandalised last week by SFI activists, he said the incident was unfortunate, and those vandalising my office are children.
In the attached video, the anchor is heard saying that Rahul Gandhi has called the accused children who killed Kanhaiya Lal.
BJP leader, Rajyavardhan Rathore, posted the video making the same claim. After being called out, he deleted the post.
(Source: Twitter/Screenshot)
Several BJP leaders and journalists have shared the video claiming the same. The archive of the same can be accessed (here), (here), (here), (here), (here), (here), (here) and (here).
FactO Check:
We found that the congress leaders and several other users are claiming that the report by Zee News is false. Using keywords, we found a Twitter post by NEWS24 reporting that Rahul Gandhi called the SFI workers ” children” who vandalized his office.
राहुल गांधी ने अपने वायनाड कार्यालय में तोड़फोड़ करने वाले SFI (वामपंथी) कार्यकर्ताओं को कहा- 'बच्चा' #RahulGandhi pic.twitter.com/Lb8lED1tDK
— News24 (@news24tvchannel) July 2, 2022
The India Express reported that Rahul Gandi on visiting his vandalised office at Kalpetta, headquarters of Wayanad district, said, “This is my office. But before being my office, this is the office of the people of Wayanad. It is quite unfortunate that the office has been attacked. Violence will never resolve problems. It is not good that they have acted in an irresponsible manner. I don’t have any anger or hostility towards them. They are kids and they don’t understand the consequences of their act.”
After the threat of legal action by congress leaders, Zee News has aired an apology for airing fake news. Rohit Rajan of the channel posted the apology video on Twitter. Clarifying, he wrote: “Yesterday, in our show DNA, Rahul Gandhi’s statement was taken in the wrong context by linking it to the Udaipur incident, it was a human error for which our team is apologetic, and we apologize for the same.”
कल हमारे शो DNA में राहुल गांधी का बयान उदयपुर की घटना से जोड़ कर ग़लत संदर्भ में चल गया था, ये एक मानवीय भूल थी जिसके लिए हमारी टीम क्षमाप्रार्थी हैं, हम इसके लिए खेद जताते हैं pic.twitter.com/YGs7kfbKKi
— Rohit Ranjan (@irohitr) July 2, 2022
Conclusion:
Hence, it is evident that Rahul Gandhi did not call the accused “children” who killed Kanahiya Lal.
