On December 2, 2022, several media outlets reported that the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) had issued a notice to Kalvakuntla Kavitha, the member of legislative council from Nizamabad, Telangana, asking her to appear for questioning in the Delhi liquor scam case. Later on December 11, the investigating agency did question Kalvakuntla Kavitha at her residence in Banjara Hills. Kavitha is the daughter of Telangana chief minister K Chandrashekar Rao, commonly referred to as KCR.
In this context, a video of KCR speaking at a press conference has gone viral since the last week of December. In this short clip, we can hear him say, “In fact, I have nothing against Mr Modi. I have all respect for him, as the honourable Prime Minister of India, I have all respect for him. And another important thing I am telling you, it should be noted, and it’s very important, I am his best friend also. People hardly know what friendship we have in between us. What kind of matters we discussed… people hardly know it. Yes, I am telling it on record.”
Twitter user @rvaidya2000 shared the clip on December 28 and wrote, “Daughter caught in liquor scam. Papa suddenly is a changed man. Ha ha:)) TN soon :)) RT”
Daughter caught in liquor scam. Papa suddenly is a changed man
Ha ha:)) TN soon :)) RT pic.twitter.com/CZN6qRLdKe— RVAIDYA2000 🕉️ (@rvaidya2000) December 28, 2022
Another user, Er. Rajesh Singh, shared the clip on Twitter the next day. He wrote the same caption, but in Hindi.
जब बेटी लगी ,शराब घोटाले में फंसने
लगे मोदी को, स्पेशल वाला दोस्त-दोस्त कहने !— Er. Rajesh Singh (@Kumar1975Rajesh) December 29, 2022
User Mahaveer Jain shared the clip on Twitter on January 3 with the same caption.
Daughter caught in liquor scam. Papa suddenly is a changed man . pic.twitter.com/sBda18HmgQ
— Mahaveer Jain (@Mahaveer_VJ) January 3, 2023
This clip has also been shared on Facebook in high volume.
Fact Check
A simple keyword search on Google took us to a news report by The Times of India from March 2018. The article titled, ‘PM Modi my best friend, says KCR’ has ‘key highlights’ that match the language heard in the viral clip.
Taking this clue we performed a keyword search on YouTube and came across the same video posted by a channel called Xplorer India in March 2018.
In another video of the same conference, CM KCR can be heard reiterating that he has no dispute with the Honourable Prime Minister and he has a lot of respect for Modi.
To sum it up, a four-year-old video of Telangana CM K Chandrashekar Rao speaking about his relationship with the Prime Minister at a press conference is being falsely shared as KCR praising PM Modi after his daughter Kalvakuntla Kavitha came under CBI’s scanner in a liquor scam.
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