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
Government released RSP Chair Rabi Lamichhane bowing down to public pressure.
Fact
Viral video shows an old clip of Lamichhane leaving his party office.
A video allegedly showing Rastriya Swatantra Party (RSP) Chairman Rabi Lamichhane being released from custody is going viral on TikTok.
Police on October 18 arrested former deputy prime minister and Rastriya Swatantra Party chair Rabi Lamichhane in connection with an investigation into cooperative fraud and organised crime charges. Saying that Lamichhane’s arrest was motivated by political vendetta, RSP cadres have been staging protests in Pokhara and Kathmandu, among other places.
A parliamentary probe panel formed in May to look into the cooperatives scam had recommended legal actions against Lamichhane and three other individuals for their involvement in cooperative frauds.
Against this backdrop, TikTok user @rameshchadhary23 posted a video showing RSP Chair Rabi Lamichhane waving to his supporters as he squeezes through a crowd of his supporters and journalists. In the audio, people are heard chanting ‘Rabi Dai Hai Hai’. Text superimposed on the video reads, “Finally the government had to give in to the massive protest of Nepali people, and release RSP Chair Rabi Lamichhane. Truth will always prevail, Hail with Nepal and hail with the people.”
The video posted on October 24 has garnered 25.9k likes, 526 users have shared it and 916 people have commented until the last count.
Newschecker found the claim to be misleading.
Fact Check /Verification
To check the veracity, Newschecker searched for the latest status of RSP Chair Rabi Lamichhane and found several news articles (See here, here & here) regarding the extension of judicial remand of Lamichhane.
On checking an article, dated Oct 24, 2024, published on Setopati online, we found that the Kaski District Court has extended the custody of RSP President Rabi Lamichhane by seven days.
We, then, took several key-frames from the viral video and ran reverse searches on Google. A search led us to a video, dated Sept 23, 2024, posted on the YouTube channel named Youtholic. The YouTube short video exactly matched the viral clip from reverse angle. The one-month-old video titled, “Rabi Lamichhane is going to be arrested.”
Further, we ran a Google search by using the clues from the viral video and found a video, whose frame from 0.35-minute onwards exactly matched the viral video. The video was posted on a Facebook account named Sita Niraula on September 23.
We found that the video actually showed Rabi Lamichhane leaving the party office after addressing the media and party cadres on September 22 after the parliament probe panel headed by CPN-UML lawmaker Surya Thapa made public its report.
Thus, our findings clearly showed that the viral video showed an old footage of RSP Chair Lamichhane.
Conclusion
No, the government has not released Rabi Lamichhane from police custody bowing down to public pressure. The viral is actually from September 22, 22024, and shows Lamichhane leaving his party office after addressing the party cadres.
Result: False
Sources
Setopati, Oct 24, 2024
Onlinekhabar, Oct 24, 2024
Youtholic/YouTube, Sept 23, 2024
Sita Niraula/Facebook, September 23
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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.
