By Anmol Alphonso
A photo of Indian Army chief General Manoj Pande posing with Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh chief Mohan Bhagwat and Bharatiya Janata Party leader Nitin Gadkari is edited and being shared with the false claim that General Pande paid a visit at the RSS headquarters in Nagpur.
BOOM found that the viral photo has been made by editing together different photos of each of them posing with different people.
The viral photo is being shared with the caption, "What is Army General Manoj Pandey doing here with Mohan Bhagwat"
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The same photo is being shared with the false claim on Twitter.
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FACT-CHECK
BOOM found that the viral photo has been heavily edited with the photo cut outs of Army chief General Manoj Pande, RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat and Nitin Gadkari being photoshopped into the viral photo.
A reverse image search of the viral photo showed search results with the cut out of Bhagwat being cropped from a December 2016 photo of the RSS chief meeting with Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray and Aditya Thackeray.
Bhagwat can be seen in the original photo with the same shall and the wall in the background is the same as in the viral photo.
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Additionally we also found that the photo of Nitin Gadkari has been cropped out from an April 2022 photo of him with Raj Thackeary and his family. Gadkari can be seen in the same outfit in this origianl photo as in the viral photo.
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A comparision below shows how the photo of Bhagwat and Gadkari have been photoshopped in the viral photo.
The photo of General Pande has been cropped out from a picture of him posing with his childhood friend Dilip Athale. The original photo was published in an ETV Bharat Marathi report where we can see General Pande in the same shirt as in the viral photo.
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In the comparision below, we can see that Pande is wearing the same shirt and with the same facial expressions as seen in the viral photo which shows that it has been cropped from this photo.
We also did not find any credible news reports of General Pande meeting with Bhagwat and Gadkari at the RSS headquarters in Nagpur.
