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
Stone hurled at Rastriya Prajatantra Party MP Gyanendra Shahi in his home district Jumla
Fact
2022 video of Gyanendra Shahi being pelted with mobile phone shared as recent
A 43-second long video claiming to show Rastriya Prajatantra Party (RPP) leader and member of parliament (MP) Gyanendra Shahi reacting after he was allegedly being pelted with a stone in his home district of Jumla, is going viral on TikTok.
TikTok user @nepalkhabar6 posted a video showing RPP leader Gyanendra Shahi reacting after he was attacked with a stone from the crowd while he was speaking at a programme. The video shows Shahi holding his chest in disbelief and calling on his supporters to catch him. “Hey catch him,” says Shahi, and the people in the crowd also call on to catch the person. The camera rolls towards a nearby house balcony where a man is seen joining his hands and asking for pardon. Then a woman standing next to him on the balcony repeatedly slaps him. Text superimposed on the video reads, “What is happening in Nepal. Honourable MP Gyanendra Shahi pelted stones in his home district Jumla.”
The video posted on May 6 has garnered 12.3k likes, 406 users have shared it and 1481 users have commented until the last count. 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 split the video into several key frames and conducted reverse searches on them. The searches didn’t yield any results.
So, we ran a search on YouTube using the relevant Nepali key phrase ‘Gyanendra Shahi attacked’, and the search threw up several results. On checking a video, dated May 3, 2024, published on the YouTube channel named digital media, we found that the video frame from 3.38-minute onwards exactly matched the viral clip.
We watched the video thoroughly and found that the video showed Gyanendra Shahi addressing a programme in Jumla as part of campaign for local body elections slated for May 13, 2022. On checking the other videos posted on the YouTube channel, we found that the channel has regularly posted unverified and misleading videos.
Further, we ran a search on Google and found an article, dated April 21, 2022, published on Ratopati online. The article confirmed that RSP lead Gyanendra Shahi said he was not attacked but a mobile phone fell on him unintentionally while the person was clapping.
We also checked another video, dated April 21, 2022, published a YouTube channel named Indreni Khabar, and found the video depicted the same incident of Shah being hit by an object captured from a different angel. On listening to the audio, we found that reactions by Shah and his aides resembled the viral clip.
We, then, conducted a search on Facebook by using relevant keywords and found a video, dated April 22, 2022, posted by one Syangtan Karma. The video, though taken from another angle, resembled the viral video. We found that videos showing Shahi reacting after being hit by a mobile phone had gone viral in April 2022.
Thus, our findings showed that the viral video depicted an old incident from April 2022 when a mobile phone was hurled at Shahi in Jumla.
Conclusion
No, the viral video doesn’t show Rastriya Prajatantra Party MP Gyanendra Shahi being attacked with stone. The video actually shows an old incident from 2022 when he was hit by a mobile phone in Jumla ahead of local body elections.
Result: False
Sources
Digital Media, May 3, 2024
Indreni Khabar /YouTube, April 21, 2022
Ratopati, April 21, 2022
Syangtan Karma/Facebook, April 22, 2022
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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.
