By Anmol Alphonso
A photo of a railway porter tying a licensed badge with the serial number '420' on Congress leader Rahul Gandhi's arm is morphed and fake.
Gandhi had interacted with porters when he visited East Delhi’s Anand Vihar railway station last week asking them about their problems and had also donned their red uniform shirt and wore a badge they gave him. He had also briefly carried a suitcase on his head as he walked along with them.
Section 420 in the Indian Penal Code (IPC) deals with cheating. The number 420 is used negatively in the Indian connotation often used to describe someone as a cheat. The morphed image is viral in this context.
The viral photo was posted by the X account Narendra Modi fan (@narendramodi177) with the caption, "420 @RahulGandhi"
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The same photo is being shared on X with the same false claim.
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FACT-CHECK
BOOM found that the serial number of the licensed porter badge is morphed in the viral photo. The original badge that was tied by the porter on Rahul Gandhi's arm actually has the number '756'.
We checked the photos posted by Gandhi on his official Instagram handle and found that the number on the badge is '756'. Gandhi posted several photos of his interaction with railway porters on September 21, 2023 on Instagram.
On zooming on the badge we can clearly see the number '756' written on it.
A comparison of both the images can be seen below
Additionally, in an interview to the YouTube channel The Mithila, the porter who had tied the badge on Gandhi's hand also dismissed the claim that the badge no is '420' stating that it is '756'. His answer can be seen in the below video at the 10.55 minute timestamp.
