Sanjeeb Phuyal is the Nepali Editor of Newschecker based in Kathmandu, Nepal. He brings over a decade of experience writing and editing news. In his previous stint, he worked as online editor for The Kathmandu Post. With the growth of social media platforms—and the ever-growing competition amongst media outlets to churn out breaking news, he feels that fact-checking every piece of information has become more essential today than ever before.
Claim
Home Minister Rabi Lamichhane talked with fugitive GB Rai on the phone and asked when he would come to Nepal.
Fact
Old audio from Lamichhane’s TV programme Sidha Kura Janta Sanga laid on top of the video.
A one-minute-42-second video purportedly to show Deputy Prime Minister and Home Minister Rabi Lamichhne talking with fugitive GB Rai, who is implicated in cooperative fund misuse, is going viral on TikTok.
Gitendra Babu (GB) Rai, chairman of now-defunct Gorkha Media Network and founding chairman of Pokhara-based Suryadarshan Savings and Credit Cooperatives, has been absconding after embezzling over Rs 1 billion cooperative fund. Earlier in January, the International Criminal Police Organisation (INTERPOL) had issued a diffusion notice against GB Rai. Lamichhane was a former managing director of Gorkha Media Network.
Against this backdrop, TikTok user @nirajkarkii55 posted a video carrying photos of GB Rai and Rabi Lamichhane. An alleged phone conversation claimed to be between Lamichhane and GB Rai is heard in the video. Lamichhane is heard saying, “When will you come back to Nepal? Don’t say one or two years, the matter has become serious.” While the other person speaking with Rabi says, “No, I won’t come for the next three years because I returned just a few days ago.” Then, Rabi replies, “Oh! How could you so easily say that you won’t come for three years after pocketing money from the people?”
Then the video plays another footage of Rabi Lamichhane speaking at another place. “GB Rai is GB Rai and my name is Rabi Lamichhane. Rabi Lamichhane won’t be involved in every undertaking of GB Rai. I worked with him on television and the relationship ended after I stopped working there. He will have to face the consequences for his actions. And we will arrest him no matter where he is—be it in the sky or underground…”
Text superimposed on the video reads, “After losing the by-election in Ilam, Rabi directly called GB Rai.”
The video posted on April 30 has garnered 3799 likes, 40 users have shared it and 225 people have commented until the time of publishing this article.
The audio from 19.19-minute onwards exactly matched the viral video. The archived version of the TikTok video can be seen here.
Newschecker found the claim to be misleading.
Fact Check /Verification
To check the authenticity of the claim made in the viral video, Newschecker searched for news if Rabi Lamichhane talked with GB Rai on the phone. However, we didn’t find any relevant news reports on the issue.
We, then, closely listened to the conversation and suspected that the audio could be from Rabi Lamichhane’s famous Television programme named ‘Janata Sanga Sidha Kura’ known for broadcasting direct conversations related to the problems faced by Nepali migrant workers and various other social issues.
So, we ran several searches on YouTube by using Nepali keywords heard in the conversations and found a video, dated April 25, 2017, published on the YouTube channel of New24 Television. On watching the 41-minute-long video, we found that the audio from 19.18-minute to 19.32-minute exactly matched the audio of the first footage of the viral video. The original video actually showed Rabi Lamichhane holding a video call with one Govinda Tiwari who allegedly swindled money from people with a false promise of sending them to Japan.
Then, to find the original clip of Rabi Lamichhane expressing his determination to arrest GB Rai, we conducted a search on YouTube by using relevant Nepali keywords and found a video, dated March 23, 2024, published on a channel named Perins Pramod TV. On checking the video, we found that the clip from 0.8-second onwards exactly matched the second clip of the viral video.We also found several articles regarding Home Minister Rabi Lamichhane’s firm commitment to arrest GB Rai, irrespective of his whereabouts (See here, here). According to the reports, Minister Lamichhane made the remark at a programme organised by his party on March 23, 2024.
Thus, our findings clearly show that the alleged conversation between Home Minister Rabi Lamichhane and GB Rai is an old audio from New24 Television when Lamichhane was grilling one person named Govinda Tiwari living in Japan.
Conclusion
No, the viral video doesn’t show Home Minister Rabi Lamichhane talking to fugitive GB Rai on the phone. An unrelated audio of then TV journalist Rabi talking with one Govinda Tiwari while he was working for New24 Television in 2017 is laid on top.
Result: Altered video
Sources
News24 Television/YouTube, April 25, 2017
Perins Pramod Tv/YouTube, March 23, 2024
My Republica, Jan 21, 2024
eKantipur, March 23, 2024
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Sanjeeb Phuyal is the Nepali Editor of Newschecker based in Kathmandu, Nepal. He brings over a decade of experience writing and editing news. In his previous stint, he worked as online editor for The Kathmandu Post. With the growth of social media platforms—and the ever-growing competition amongst media outlets to churn out breaking news, he feels that fact-checking every piece of information has become more essential today than ever before.
