Daijiworld Media Network - New Delhi (MS)

New Delhi, Jan 11: A report showing the arrest of Rahul Gandhi in the United States for possession of drugs is being widely circulated on the social media, especially Facebook and Twitter saying that the clipping is genuine. Now it has unearthed that this story was created using a newspaper clipping generator website.

There were only reports on the newspapers back in 2001 that Rahul Gandhi was detained for a brief period of time at the Boston airport but was not arrested. But the arrest clipping of Rahul Gandhi is posted in a Facebook post on December 26, 2019. The clip, the image of which is posted on the Facebook shows the date at September 30, 2001 and the caption of the story is 'Indian Politician Arrested'.

The text that appears in the newspaper says, “An Indian politician was detained at Boston airport when the airport security found him in possession of banned drugs and unaccounted cash. As per our sources, he is the son of a former Indian Prime Minister. He was later released after the intervention of the Indian ambassador to the U.S., reports AFP."

The headline given in the Facebook post of this clipping says, "The caption reads: “When Rahul Gandhi was arrested back in Boston for drugs. He was released after intervention by PM Vajpayee. Sonia begged and large-hearted Vajpayee spoke to U.S. authorities. Now such shabby character wants to be PM. One can check newspaper clipping of Boston (USA).”

Now it is unearthed that this was created using online newspaper clipping generator Fodey.com. The original headline of the post was 'Martians Invade Earth'.

The online newspaper clipping tool allows the user to manipulate any story and put his own text into it and also the headline. So now it is proved that the reported arrest of Rahul Gandhi in 2001 was fabricated by the opposition parties to tarnish his image.