‘Burnt Cash’ Found at DK Shivakumar’s House? No, It’s Fake News

The video has gone viral in India, Pakistan, Russia and Cameroon.

A video featuring burnt cash has gone viral across countries with fake claims.

(Photo: Altered by The Quint)

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Art is often perceived as open to interpretation, but as it turns out, that scheme does not really augur well in the fake news ecosystem.

The Quint has come across a post on social media with a photograph that shows a huge pile of burnt currency and it is being claimed that the money was found at the residence of Congress leader DK Shivakumar in Delhi. It further alleges that the minister tried to burn the pile of notes when his house was raided.

This comes at a time when Congress leader Shivakumar was arrested on Tuesday, 3 September, by Enforcement Directorate in a money laundering case.

TRUE OR FALSE

The claim is completely false. We found out that the video actually shows an art installation which was displayed in Madrid in 2018. We also found out that the same video had earlier gone viral with similar claims in Pakistan, Russia and Cameroon.

WHAT WE FOUND OUT

On breaking down the video into several key frames using Invid Google Chrome extension, we saw that the same video has been shared with different claims earlier.

This post from March had alleged that this cash was found at the house of a Tamil Nadu politician.

Post shared by other Facebook users.(Photo Courtesy: Facebook)

The same post by another user suggests that the video is getting circulated on WhatsApp too.

The Facebook post with the video is getting circulated on WhatsApp as well.(Photo Courtesy: Facebook)

A reverse image search of the different frames in the video, however, had more revelations in store.

The same video has also been shared in Pakistan with claims that the country’s investigating agency National Accountability Bureau (NAB) has found stacks of cash at Pakistan Peoples Party leader Agha Siraj Durrani’s house.

The post probably gained more traction as Durrani is currently under interrogation by the NAB.

But, that’s not all.

Some more digging revealed that the video has been shared with similar captions in Cameroon and Russia as well.

The same video, with claims related to Russia, has been shared and circulated.(Photo Courtesy: Facebook)

But, the truth of the video – which has now gone viral across the globe – lies in an art installation by Spanish artist Alejandro Monge.

A reverse image search led us to the original post put up by Monge on Instagram on 25 February.

The art installation shows burnt currency notes.(Photo Courtesy: Instagram/monge_art)

Earlier, Monge had shared another post on Instagram while setting up his installation. This clears the confusion, doesn’t it?

Spanish artist Alejandro Monge setting up the installation.(Photo Courtesy: Instagram/monge_art)

Interestingly, the caption of the video written in Spanish reads, “It’s what internet has done that something without knowing goes viral.. and then no one knows what is it or who it is.”

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