By Srijanee Chakraborty
A morphed image of Prime Minister Narendra Modi holding a framed photograph of the late Punjabi singer Sidhu Moose Wala is circulating on Instagram.
BOOM found that the image of PM Modi is from November 5, 2015 and the image of Sidhu Moose Wala had been morphed and inserted.
An Instagram user uploaded the morphed photograph on November 1, 2022 on the platform with the caption, "Punjabi Punjabi industry king". The text 'King Of Punjabi Industry "Sidhu Moosewala" is written in the viral morphed image.
Sidhu Moose Wala, a Punjabi singer and rapper, was shot dead by unidentified assailants in May this year. The late singer's song Vaar was released on YouTube on November 8.
Click here to see the Instagram post.
Also Read: Video of Golden Dragon Boat In China Peddled As Diwali Celebration in Kerala
Fact Check
BOOM ran a reverse image search of the viral photograph and came across a Scroll.in article published on May 2, 2019. In the article, "BJP calls ban on Masood Azhar a win for every Indian, but says Opposition reluctant to celebrate it," we saw the same image of PM Modi.
In the picture PM Modi can be seen accompanied by former finance minister Arun Jaitley and present finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman.
The Prime Minister can be seen holding the same golden frame seen in the Instagram post. In the original picture, gold coin and gold bullions can be seen. See here.
We again ran a reverse image search of the article's featured image and came across the same picture on articles published by NDTV and Forbes India on November 5, 2015; According to the articles, PM Modi was posing with Jaitley and Sitharaman on the occasion of the government launching new gold schemes and Indian gold coin.
Forbes India in their article headlined as, "Government launches gold schemes to reduce import bill, will it work?" captioned the image as, "Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched three gold-related schemes on 5th November 2105 in New Delhi and said that the idea is to urge Indian women, the primary drivers of gold consumption, to invest in these schemes" and credited the image to Press Information Bureau(PIB).
NDTV in their article titled as, "PM Modi Launches Gold Schemes, Coin with Ashok Chakra" used the same photograph. The image has been captioned as, "PM Modi also unveiled the first ever Indian gold coin & bullion."
Taking a cue from this, we looked into PIB India's tweet from November, 2015 and found the same image along with three other images tweeted on November 5, 2015. The caption reads, "PM Sh Narendra Modi launches Gold schemes in New Delhi."
Click here to see.
Also Read: No, Bengaluru's Christ College Students Did Not Dance To 'Jai Shri Ram'
