Fact Check: Image showing a car mobbed in a street makes a false claim
An image showing a car stuck in a street with thousands of people flocking around it is being shared with a claim that it was taken during Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s recent visit to Kochi, Kerala.
An image showing a car stuck in a street with thousands of people flocking around it is being shared with a claim that it was taken during Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s recent visit to Kochi, Kerala.
Prime Minister Modi was on a 2-day trip to Kerala, from April 24 to April 26, 2023. The PM flagged off Vande Bharat Express which runs between Thiruvananthapuram to Kasarod. He also inaugurated India’s first water metro in Kochi. As part of his visit, several images were published online and the viral image is one of them.
A user shared this image with a claim in Malayalam that goes as “രാഷ്ട്രീയ പിതാവ് മോദീജിയെ ഒരു
The same image was shared by another Twitter user with the caption: “Guess which political leader’s rally in Kerala is this?”
Fact Check:
The claim that the image shows people flocking to get a glimpse of Indian PM Modi is false. The image was taken in 2017 during actress Sunny Leone’s visit to Kochi for a mobile launch event.
The image was published in an article in August 2017, with the description “Sunny Leone’s car mobbed by fans in Kerala”
It was also shared by another article published in India Today with the title “Sunny Leone brought Kochi to a standstill in 2017, on Throwback Thursday”. The article states that Sunny Leone was invited to the launch of a smartphone branch at MG Road in Kochi. It was a Sunny storm that day. Quite literally. The traffic on MG Road came to a complete standstill as Sunny's car was surrounded by thousands of fans. She was stumped looking at the audience turnout. The crowd was much more than what the state witnessed when Shah Rukh Khan or football legend Maradona visited Kerala. Thankfully, Sunny was able to make her way to the dais with the help of police, to address the gathering.
The same image was shared by Sunny Leone herself on her Twitter account in August 2017 with the caption “My car in literally a sea of love in Kochi Kerala!! Thanks”
Therefore, the image shared is not from the recent visit of Indian Prime Minister Modi to Kochi, Kerala. It is from 2017 when Sunny Leone visited Kochi. The claim is false.
