Several Congress leaders and social media users shared a photograph of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to claim that he clicked pictures of the cheetahs brought from Namibia with a closed lens.
On 17 September, the prime minister, on his birthday, released the eight cheetahs' into Madhya Pradesh's Kuno National Park.
However, we found that the shared picture was edited. The original picture, shared by the Gujarat Bharatiya Janata Party's (BJP) verified Twitter page, shows Modi clicking pictures but there is no lens cap.
CLAIM
Several Congress accounts like the Rajasthan Youth Congress national secretary Ishita Sedha, Maharashtra Congress Seva Dal, and Uttar Pradesh Congress MLA Virendra Chaudhary shared the photo.
Former IAS and Rajya Sabha Trinamool Congress MP Jawhar Sircar and state president of Samajwadi Lohiya Vahini’s (Uttar Pradesh) Ram Karan Nirmal shared the image too.
WHAT WE FOUND OUT
We found the image on the official Twitter handle of the BJP's Gujarat unit. The images from Kuno National Park were shared on 17 September and the original one didn't show him holding a camera with a lens cap on.
We noticed that the camera was 'Nikon', a Japanese company, and the lens cover showed 'Canon', another Japenese company.
The viral photo has been flipped and edited to add the lens cap.
Clearly, an edited video of PM Modi holding a camera with a closed lens is going viral.
(The story was first published on Quint Hindi on 18 September.)
(Not convinced of a post or information you came across online and want it verified? Send us the details on WhatsApp at 9643651818, or e-mail it to us at webqoof@thequint.com and we'll fact-check it for you. You can also read all our fact-checked stories here.)
(At The Quint, we question everything. Play an active role in shaping our journalism by becoming a member today.)