2024-05-05 06:05:12
New Delhi: Two phases of voting for the Lok Sabha Elections 2024 have been completed and the third phase of voting is scheduled to take place on May 7. Before the third phase of voting, a video is going viral on social media. Regarding which it is being claimed that the person seen in the viral video is the Chief Electoral Officer of Gujarat and this video is a demo video of live glitch in EVM. However, when this video was investigated, this claim turned out to be completely fake.
What is the claim regarding the viral video?
A user named ‘alonebut200’ has shared this video (archive link) on Instagram. He wrote – Gujarat CEO showed live demo of EVM malfunction, BJP government upset after seeing live EVM malfunction. Live proof of EVM malfunction, this video has been watched by millions of people so far. There are more than one lakh likes on the video.
When Vishvas News investigated the video going viral, the truth came out to be something else. The person not seen in the video is not the Chief Electoral Officer of Gujarat, nor is this video of live EVM malfunction. The person seen in the video is Atul Patel and this video is from a press conference of ‘Remove EVM, Save Country Movement’.
What came to light in the investigation
When the video and its claims were investigated, the first thing Vishvas News team checked was the website of CEO Gujarat. According to the information received from there, the CEO of Gujarat is Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer P Bharti. From here the claim made on the post that the CEO of Gujarat is seen in the video proved to be false.
Now Vishvas News team tried to find its original video. On searching the keywords of the video, his team found this video uploaded on a YouTube channel named ‘rime media goa’, which was uploaded on February 2, 2024. This video is a press release of ‘Remove EVM Desh Bachao Movement’. It is of a conference, first Advocate Bhanu Prasad is seen in the video, after that a person gives a demo of the malfunction in EVM, who is also seen in the viral video clip. Atul Patel is seen as a technical expert in the background of the press conference. The name is visible written. That means the person who is giving the demo of the alleged malfunction in EVM is Atul Patel.
When Vishvas News team started searching about Atul Patel, they found a video on MP on YouTube titled “Who is Atul Patel on whom Digvijay Singh is directly challenging the Election Commission! This proved that the person seen in the viral video is not the Gujarat CEO nor is the machine seen in the video an EVM.
When the Election Commission was contacted regarding the claim of the viral video, they said that this claim is fake. In this matter, a clarification has already been given by the Election Commission in which it has been declared fake.
The Commission said that neither the person seen in the video is the CEO of Gujarat nor any of the claims made in it are true. Also, the machine seen in the video is also not an EVM.
conclusion: Gujarat Chief Election Commission’s video of live demo of EVM malfunction is completely fake. The machine seen in the video is not EVM nor is the person seen in the video the Gujarat CEO. In such a situation, this video is being shared for false propaganda in the election environment.
(This story was originally published by Vishvas News, and republished by NBT as part of the Shakti Collective.)