Old clip of differently abled girl applying 'tilak' on Fadnavis falsely shared as recent

New Delhi, Dec 18 (PTI) A video recently went viral on social media showing a differently abled girl performing 'aarti' and applying a 'tilak' on BJP leader Devendra Fadnavis' forehead with her toe. Those sharing the video claimed that it was shot recently after Fadnavis took oath as the Maharashtra chief minister on December 5.
    An investigation by the PTI Fact Check Desk revealed that the viral video is not a recent one but from June 2023, when Fadnavis was the deputy chief minister in the previous Maharashtra government.
    A Facebook user named 'Bimal Kumar Jain' shared the video on December 10 and wrote, "A Divyang girl performed aarti of Devendra Fadnavis, who was elected Chief Minister of Maharashtra. Both are great."
    Considering the video to be recent, many other users shared it with the same claim.
    To verify the claim, the desk reverse-searched the keyframes of the video. We found information related to this in a report published on Dainik Bhaskar's website on June 27, 2023.
    According to the report, Fadnavis was in Jalgaon at that time when a differently abled girl at the Deepstambh Foundation honoured him by applying a 'tilak' on his forehead and performing his 'aarti'.
    The foundation helps differently abled, orphaned and poor children and works to provide quality education to them.
    Meanwhile, a report by News18 stated that the girl's name is Laxmi Shinde.
    Fadnavis also posted this video on his X (formerly Twitter) handle. Sharing the video on June 27, 2023, he described the incident as an emotional moment of his life.
    The investigation made it clear that the viral video is not a recent one. Users are sharing this video on social media with the misleading claim that it is a recent clip.
    Read the full fact-check report here: http://bit.ly/3VD4wak
    For verification of any claim viral on social media, contact PTI Fact Check Desk's WhatsApp number +91-8130503759.

(This story has not been edited by THE WEEK and is auto-generated from PTI)