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
Singers Samikshya Adhikari and Durgesh Thapa have been jailed
Fact
The singers are carrying on with their regular businesses
A news clip claiming that Nepali singers Samikshya Adhikari and Durgesh Thapa have been sent to jail for two years after the release of cine artist Paul Shah (Purna Bikram Shah) is being shared among Nepali TikTok users. Newschecker found the claim to be false.
Against this backdrop, TikTok user @govindakafle92 posted a video showing images of Nepali cine artist Paul Shah. Text superimposed on the video reads, “Good News. With the release of Paul Shah, Durgesh [artist Durgesh Thapa] and Samikshya [Adhikari] have been sentenced to jail for two years.” Audio accompanying the video says, “We just learnt that Paul Shah has been released from jail.” The archived version of the TikTok video can be seen here.
The video posted on February 26 has garnered 947 likes, and 12 people have commented on it until the last count.
Shah was taken into custody on February 27, 2022 after a 17-year-old minor lodged separate complaints at Tanahun and Nawalpur districts accusing Shah of raping her. Earlier in September 2022, the district court in Nawalparasi (East) had sentenced actor Shah to two years and six months in jail and slapped a fine of Rs25,000 on the charge of molesting a minor. Shah had moved the high court challenging the Nawalparasi (East) court verdict. Pokhara High Court acquitted Shah on February 26 of child sex abuse charges and he was released the next day exactly a year after his arrest.
Fact Check /Verification
To check the authenticity of the claim made in the viral video, Newschecker searched for news regarding the imprisonment of singer Adhikari and Thapa but to no avail.
Then we checked the social media pages of singer Samikshya Adhikari and Durgesh Thapa. On checking the verified Facebook page of Samikshya Adhikari, we found that she has been regularly updating about her status by posting photos of her latest visits to different places. We also looked up the verified Facebook page of Durgesh Thapa and found that he has been posting photos about his status. He has posted images of his Phagu Poornima or Holi festival celebration.
Our findings showed that the claim that singers Samikshya Adhikari and Durgesh Thapa have been jailed are misleading.
Conclusion
The video claiming that Nepali singers Samikshya Adhikari and Durgesh Thapa have been sent to jail along with the release of cine artist Paul Shah is false.
Result: False
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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.
