Fact Check: Viral image claiming to show Rahul Gandhi’s secret family is Misleading

Meanwhile, an image of Rahul Gandhi with a girl and 3 kids is going viral with the claim that it shows his secret family. Rahul Gandhi and the children can be seen posing in front of a helicopter. The users shared the image with sarcastic captions in Telugu like “దాచేస్తే దాగుతాయా నిజాలు.? ఎప్పటికైనా విత్తనం భూమిని చీల్చుకుంటూ... బయటకు వచ్చినట్లు, అలా అలా బయటకు వచ్చేస్తాయి.!” When translated, it reads: “Can truth be hidden? Just as a seed breaks the ground to grow, truth will also emerge from darkness….!”

While some users shared the same image with claim: “బహిరంగ భ్రహ్మచారి... ఇక మీ కామెంట్ నాకైతే తెలియదు..మీకు ఏమైనా ఎరుకనా...?? ఎరుక అయితే కాస్తా బంధం కోసం చెప్పారా..??!” When translated, it claims “brahmachari...I don't know your comment..Do you know anything? If you could understand anything, can you please tell us?”

The same image was also viral in January 2024 with the same claim in Hindi.

Fact check:

The claim is False. The children seen in the image are not Rahul Gandhi’s secret family.

When the image was searched using Google reverse image search, we found a few articles which shared the same image. We found a YouTube video by a channel named First Khaber with the title ‘महिला कांग्रेस बारां जिलाध्यक्ष प्रियंका नंदवाना की पुत्री को राहुल गांधी ने करवाई हेलीकॉप्टर शेयर’, which when translated, says ‘Rahul Gandhi shared a helicopter with the daughter of Priyanka Nandwana, the 2nd district president of Women's Congress’. In the video, we can hear them state that the children are kids of a district president of the Congress party from Baran district in Rajasthan, Priyanka Nandwana. It was the birthday of the elder girl and they were taken for a helicopter ride by Rahul Gandhi.

The video sharing similar images was also shared by a YouTube channel named Kanak News, with the title ‘Congress leader Rahul Gandhi keeps his promise, takes the student on Helicopter ride’

When searched further, we found a photo article on the Rajasthan Tak news website, which stated that Rahul Gandhi was going to Sawai Madhavpur to celebrate his mother’s birthday, while Kamakshi Nandwana, was celebrating her 14^th birthday. Rahul called them and gave them a helicopter ride.

Therefore, the image of Rahul Gandhi with family members of a woman district president from Baran district, Rajasthan is being shared with a False claim. The image does not show Rahul Gandhi’s secret family. The claim is False.