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
Rastriya Swatantra Party Chairman Rabi Lamichhane vows to take action against those who conspired against cricketer Sandeep Lamichhane.
Fact
Viral video actually shows Lamichhane delivering a political speech at an annual event of his party.
A video allegedly showing Rastriya Swatantra Party (RSP) Chairperson Rabi Lamichhane expressing his commitment not to spare “those involved in framing Nepali cricketer Sandeep Lamichhane” in a rape case is going viral. The video goes on to claim that Chairman Lamichhane has also exposed the secret of the minor girl who was allegedly raped by Sandeep.
Earlier on January 10, Kathmandu District Court sentenced start cricketer Lamichhane to eight years in Jail for raping an 18-year-old woman.
Against this backdrop, TikTok user @khadka.dirgha posted a video showing Rabi Lamichhane delivering a speech at a programme. Text superimposed on the video reads, “Rabi not to spare those involved in framing Sandeep Lamichhane. First he delivered a fiery speech and later exposed all the secrets of the minor girl [who was allegedly raped by Sandeep].” In his 10-minute long speech, Rabi is heard saying, “The old political parties won’t improve. If they were to mend their ways, they wouldn’t have elected the person, who recently lost the election, to the National Assembly. How can I make you understand by crying, laughing or dancing that your party is not going to change? I am not trying to scorn. They are trying to prove that we are no different from them. You have witnessed how many times they tried to pull my legs.”
The video posted on January 1 has garnered 8155 likes, 48 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 closely observed the video and noticed a logo on the top right corner of the viral video and a watermark of ‘Sidha Media TV’ on the screen. Taking a clue from the video, we conducted a search on a YouTube channel named ‘Sidha Media TV’ and found a 25-minute long video whose title matched the claim made in the viral video.
On watching the video thoroughly, we didn’t find Rabi Lamchhane uttering the name of Sandeep Lamichhane even once.
We, then, took a keyframe from the viral video and conducted a reverse search on it which threw up several results matching the viral video. On checking a video, dated January 15, 2024, published on the YouTube channel named Sunita Dangol, we found that the video frame resembled the viral video. We listened to the speech of RSP Chair Lamichhane and found that the speech from 4.30-minute onwards exactly matched the speech in the viral video.
The YouTube video title gave us the hint that the video actually showed Rabi Lamichhane’s speech during the event to make the party’s annual progress report public held in Kathmandu. We listened to the 29-minute long video and didn’t find Lamichhane speaking a word about cricketer Sandeep Lamichhane.
Further, we also checked another article published on Ujyaalo online carrying an image matching the viral video. The article, dated January 14, 2024, reported the remarks made by Chairman Lamichhane during the programme to make the Swatantra Party’s progress report public.
We also found another live video of the same event, dated January 13, 2024, published on the YouTube channel named National Times. In the video matching the viral video, Lamichhne only spoke about the national political challenges.
Conclusion
No, Rabi Lamichhane never took a vow to take action against those involved in falsely framing cricketer Sandeep Lamichhane. The viral video actually shows him delivering a speech during the Rastriya Swatantra Party’s event to make public its progress report.
Result: False
Sources
Sidha Media TV/YouTube, Jan 14, 2024
Sunita Dangol/YouTube, Jan 15, 2024
Ujyaloonepal/YouTutbe, Jan 13, 2024
National Times/YouTube, Jan 14, 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.
