A video of a journalist lamenting the ongoing COVID crisis in the country and criticising the government’s handling of it has gone viral with the false claim that it shows the late Aaj Tak journalist Rohit Sardana.
The Dangal anchor passed away on 30 April. Users have shared the clip as ‘last moments’ of Sardana.
However, the man in the viral video is not Sardana, but independent journalist Navin Kumar, who had earlier worked in Aaj Tak and now runs his own YouTube channel, ‘Article 19’.
CLAIM
Several users had shared the video with the caption, “रोहित सरदाना ने अंतिम क्षण में सच बोल ही दिया।”
(Translation: “Rohit Sardana has spoken the truth in his last moment.”)
A Facebook user had garnered over 31,000 views at the time of writing this article.
WHAT WE FOUND OUT
We looked up the channel, “दो बोल” [Do Bol] on YouTube, whose logo can be seen in the viral video.
The channel had uploaded the four-minute clip on 26 April, identifying the man in the video as journalist Navin Kumar, albeit spelling the name wrong.
We then looked up the journalist on Facebook and found a fan page which stated that Kumar was the founder at ‘Article 19’, an independent media initiative.
Going through the posts on Article 19’s Facebook page, we came across a longer version of the viral video in which Kumar is interviewing two doctors on the pandemic, while he is down with COVID himself.
The video was shared with the caption, “A talk with Dr. Manish Jangra RMLH Founder FAIMA Doctors Association and Dr Sonu Kumar Bhardwaj LHMC on India's health condition & VIP Culture In Hospitals. (sic)“
At the time stamp 1:10, he introduces himself as Navin Kumar. The viral clip begins at the time stamp 1:50.
We then reached out to Dr Manish Jangra, a resident doctor at Dr Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital and one of the doctors being interviewed, who told us that Kumar has been admitted to the LNJP Hospital.
“He’s on oxygen and is now recovering,” Dr Jangra stated, adding that the viral claim had caused panic as several people wrongly assumed that Navin Kumar had passed away.
A comparison of a still from the viral video with images of journalists Navin Kumar and Rohit Sardana also shows that the man in the viral video is indeed Kumar.
Evidently, a video of journalist Navin Kumar is being falsely shared as the last moments of late anchor Rohit Sardana.
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