Old, Unrelated Photo Shared as ‘Arvind Kejriwal Apologising to Nitin Gadkari'

The photo dates back to 2014 and shows a meeting between Kejriwal and Gadkari over e-rickshaws in Delhi.

The photo is being shared to claim that it shows a recent photo of Kejriwal apologising to Gadkari.

(Source: Facebook/Altered by The Quint)

A photo showing Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal sitting near Union Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari is being shared on social media, claiming that Kejriwal recently met the latter to apologise to him.

An archive of this claim can be seen here.

(Source: Facebook/Screenshot)

(Archives of more such claims on social media can be seen here, here and here.)

Is it true?: No. The photo dates back to 16 September 2014.

• It shows a meeting between Kejriwal and Gadkari, where the two of them had reportedly discussed guidelines for e-rickshaws.

How did we find out?: We noticed that the viral photo carried the watermark of Getty Images.

The image carried a Getty Images watermark.

(Source: Facebook/Altered by The Quint)

• Taking a cue from this, we looked for the photo on the stock image website, where we found the viral image.

• Its caption mentioned that the photo showed a meeting between Kejriwal and Gadkari on 16 September 2014, during which the two had discussed the regularisation of e-rickshaws.

The photo was taken on 16 September 2014.

(Source: Getty Images/Altered by The Quint)

• We also came across a tweet by news agency ANI and a report by Aaj Tak published on 16 September 2014, which mentioned that the two had spoken about e-rickshaws in Delhi.

Kejriwal apologised in 2018: During our investigation, we came across news reports about Kejriwal apologising to Gadkari in 2018.

• As per a NDTV report, Kejriwal had apologised to the Union transport minister for making defamatory statements against the latter.

• It mentioned that in 2014, the Delhi chief minister had called Gadkari "one of the country's most corrupt politicians," after which Gadkari filed a defamation suit.

• Facing a slew of cases, Kejriwal then apologised for "making unverified allegations" against Gadkari, after which both jointly appealed in court to drop the defamation case.

Conclusion: A nine-year-old photo of a meeting between Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal and Union Minister Nitin Gadkari is being shared with a false claim that it is a recent picture of Kejriwal apologising to Gadkari.

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