A newspaper clipping which talks about an American Deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) expert claiming that Congress leader Rahul Gandhi is not the son of former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi is going viral on the internet.
(Archives of several similar claims can be found here, here, and here.)
We also received multiple queries on our WhatsApp tipline.
What is the truth?: The newspaper clipping is fake. The Quint did not find any such report available in the public domain.
Moreover, we did not find any information about the DNA expert Martin Sijo.
A similar fake news clipping about Prime Minister Narendra Modi had also went viral in 2019.
How did we find out?: We performed a keyword search on Google and did not come across any news report which supports the claim of Rahul Gandhi not being the son of Rajiv Gandhi.
We also looked up for the DNA expert's name "Dr Martin Soji" but did not find any information about him.
If such a press conference was to be held that challenged the lineage of Rahul Gandhi, several news reports would have been available on the internet.
A recurring template: The Quint had fact-checked a similar template about PM Modi in 2019, stating that he was Asaram Bapu's son.
A comparison between both the images clearly highlights the similarities.
It shows that only the name of the individuals and parties have been changed, whereas the format of the newspaper clipping remains the same.
Conclusion: It is clear that a fabricated news clipping is being shared to falsely claim that an American DNA expert has said that Congress leader Rahul Gandhi is not the son of former PM Rajiv Gandhi.
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