Old Clip of Congress on Delhi Liquor Scam Shared With Misleading Context

Ajay Maken hosted this press conference in February 2023. It does not show him explaining why Kejriwal was arrested.

Fact-Check: This video is not recent and dates back to 2023. 

(Source: Altered by The Quint) 

Hours after Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal's arrest by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in connection to the Delhi Liquor Policy case, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) IT Cell head Amit Malviya posted a video on his X (formerly Twitter) account, which showed Congress' Ajay Maken talking about the case.

What is Maken saying in the video?: The Congress party treasurer explained to the press what the liquor scam was about. He mentioned where the money from the scam was used. He questioned the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leaders named in the scam, asking if they had no moral responsibility to stick to their seats.

What is the claim?: Those sharing claimed that Ajay Maken explained why Arvind Kejriwal had been arrested. By sharing this, the posts insinuated that it was a recent press conference.

An archive of the post can be found here. 

(Source: X/Screenshot) 

This post recorded 218K views at the time of writing this story. (Archives of similar claims can be found here, here and here.)

Is this true?: The claim is misleading.

• The press conference was hosted by the Congress in February 2023. We found the video on Congress' YouTube channel.

How did we find out?: At first, we performed a relevant keyword search and came across the full video of the press conference on the Congress party's YouTube channel.

• It was uploaded with the title, "Full PC Congress | Ajay Makan | Lokpal | Arvind Kejriwal | Delhi Liquor Scam | 100 Crore Scam"

• We noticed the date of the press conference which showed as 4 February 2023.

Here is a close-up of the date. 

(Source: YouTube/Altered by The Quint) 

• At 7:03 minutes of the video, Maken can be heard speaking about the liquor scam.

• By sharing a short clip of Maken's press conference at the time of Kejriwal's arrest, users have insinuated that the video is recent as the claim has not mentioned any time or date of the presser.

Congress on Kejriwal's arrest: Congress leaders have rallied support against the Delhi CM's arrest by the ED.

• Congress leaders Rahul and Priyanka Gandhi put out statements against the move by the central agency. The former said, "The arrest of the elected Chief Ministers has also become a common thing."

• Priyanka Gandhi termed the arrest as "unconstitutional and wrong."

• Apart from Congress, other opposition leaders such as West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee, Tamil Nadu SM MK Stalin and others, too extended support to the AAP.

Conclusion: The video has shared with a misleading context. The press conference is from 2023 and not recent.

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