Man Speaking Against Reliance Misidentified as Himalaya Drug Co's Owner

The man seen in the viral video is Delhi-based advocate, Bhanu Pratap Singh, who delivered a speech in January 2020.

A video of a man asking people to not buy products made by Reliance and Baba Ramdev, at an anti-CAA protest in Delhi's Mustafabad, has gone viral with social media users identifying the man as 'owner of Himalaya company'.

However, we found that the man seen in the viral video is a Delhi-based advocate, Bhanu Pratap Singh, who delivered a speech in January 2020.

CLAIM

In the 02:20-minute long video, the man can be heard asking people to switch from Reliance Jio numbers to other service providers such as Airtel, Vodafone, among others.

The claim along with the video stated that the man is the owner of 'Himalaya company' and took a dig at how he is making beauty products out of Ayurvedic medicines.

Several social media users shared the video on Facebook and Twitter with the same claim and the archived posts can be viewed here, here, here and here.

WHAT WE FOUND OUT

Taking a cue from the logo seen in the viral video, we searched on YouTube using keywords 'times express voice of democracy' and came across the YouTube handle of 'Times Express'.

We then conducted a search on the aforementioned YouTube handle using relevant keywords that led us to a video uploaded by the account on 25 January 2020.

In the 12-minute long video from an anti-CAA protest, the viral part can be heard from 04:37 minutes. The caption along with the video identifies the man speaking in Delhi's Mustafabad as one advocate Bhanu Pratap Singh. His social media profiles identify him as a Delhi-based advocate.

Regarding the founder of Himalaya Drug Company, we found that their website mentioned that M Manal passed away in 1986.

Further, an image of Himalaya Drug Company’s founder can be seen on their website, and there is a stark difference between him and the man seen in the viral video.

Evidently, a video of an advocate Bhanu Pratap Singh delivering a speech in January 2020 in Delhi's Mustafabad was falsely linked to Himalaya Drug Company's founder.

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