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
Nepali Congress Member of Parliament Arzu Rana Deuba has been arrested from New Delhi on fake Bhutanese refugee scam.
Fact
No, the claim made in the viral video is baseless.
A video claiming that Nepali Congress member of parliament Arzu Rana Deuba has been arrested from India’s capital New Delhi for her alleged involvement in a fake Bhutanese refugee scam, has been going viral on TikTok.
Earlier in March 2023, the Kantitpur Daily published an investigative report exposing that 875 Nepali people were swindled of millions of rupees through a fraud scheme by giving them fake refugee documents to send them to the United States of America. The Bhutanese refugees were qualified for resettlement in the US as part of a third country resettlement programme. A former deputy prime minister, home ministers, a home secretary, a police chief, prominent Bhutanese refugee rights activists, among others, were implicated in the scam. There were growing calls for probing Arzu Rana in the fake Bhutanese refugee scam after an alleged audio recording suggested she had received a cash amount from a suspect in the case.
TikTok user @raznabin3 posted a video showing images of Arzu Rana Deuba, a Nepali Congress lawmaker and wife of former Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba. The video also shows images of Deputy Prime Minister Home Minister Rabi Lamichhane. Audio accompanying the video presented in a news bulletin style says, “Arzu Rana who had been absconding fearing police arrest has been arrested from New Delhi. She was arrested at the initiative of Home Minister Rabi Lamichhane. The wife of a former Prime Minister, who was embroiled in dozens of corruption cases has come under police investigation. Arzu Rana is the designer of a fake refugee scam. She has been accused of playing a key role in a fake Bhutanese refugee case. Many big leaders are soon going behind bars.” Tex superimposed on the video reads, “Arzu Rana arrested from Delhi, and she will be put behind bars for her alleged role in a fake Bhutanese refugee scam. It wouldn’t be inappropriate to call her the most-corrupt sister-in-law because there is no such corrupt leader.”
The video posted on March 26 has garnered 17.3k likes, 604 users have shared it until the time of publishing this article. 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 reports regarding the arrest of Arzu Rana Deuba in New Delhi. However, the search didn’t yield any relevant results.
We, then, looked up the social media pages (Facebook) of Arzu Deuba to check if she had updated her status. We found a post, dated March24, on Rana’s Facebook page, expressing her best wishes for Holi festival. However, we didn’t find any other updates regarding her arrest.
As we couldn’t verify the claim regarding the arrest of Arzu Deuba from any sources, Newscheker reached out to Nepal Police spokesperson Bhim Prasad Dhakal, who confirmed that the claim is baseless.
Thus, our findings clearly showed that the claim made in the viral video is misleading.
Conclusion
No, Nepali Congress leader Arzu Rana Deuba has not been arrested from New Delhi. The viral video is misleading.
Result: False
Sources
Kathmandu Post, July 10, 2023
People’s Review, May 10, 2023
Facebook/Arzu Rana Deuba
Direct contact with Nepal Police spokesperson.
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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.
