New Delhi: A picture of a purported boarding pass of a Vistara flight on June 5, allegedly booked for Bangkok in the name of Congress MP Rahul Gandhi, has gone viral on social media.
The screenshot of the alleged boarding pass was shared on the day various exit poll surveys predicted a massive victory for the BJP-led NDA in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.
In its investigation, the PTI Fact Check Desk found that an old photo of an unrelated boarding pass was digitally altered and shared on social media as recent with a false claim.
The counting of votes for the recently concluded Lok Sabha polls is scheduled to be taken up on June 4. Leaders of the BJP have been claiming that the Congress-led INDIA bloc will face defeat in the elections, and Rahul Gandhi will go on vacation after the announcement of results.
Claim
A Facebook user shared on June 1 a photo of a purported boarding pass for a flight to Bangkok on June 5, booked in the name of Rahul Gandhi.
“Rahul Gandhi running away from India on June 5 to Bangkok,” read the caption of the post.
Here is the link and archive link to the post, and below is a screenshot of the same:
Investigation
On running the photo through Google Lens, the Desk found that it was shared by several other users with similar claims. Two such posts can be seen here and here, and their archived versions can be viewed here and here, respectively:
The same photo was widely shared on X too. Two such posts can be seen here and here, and their archived versions can be seen here and here, respectively.
The Desk noticed that the purported boarding pass in the photo mentioned two different flight numbers, suggesting that it might have been digitally altered. Below is a screenshot highlighting the same:
The Desk then further scanned the Google Lens results, and came across a similar photo, carried in a column on ‘Live From A Lounge' – a “digital platform renowned for publishing news and views about aviation, hotels, passenger experience, loyalty programs, travel trends and frequent travel tips for the Global Indian.”
The headline of the column read: “Onboard Vistara To Singapore: The first Vistara international flight ever!”
Here is the link to the column, dated August 7, 2019, and below is a screenshot of the same:
“Having flown the first flight of Vistara domestically back in 2015, it was a done deal that I was going to fly them internationally as well on the first flight. Finally, the airline announced international operations in July 2019, and the first international flight was operated between Delhi and Singapore yesterday, on which I flew. For various reasons, Vistara decided to fly the Boeing 737 they acquired recently for the flights to Singapore. One reason is that the A320/Neo in the current fleet of Vistara did not have the ability to operate the 5.5 hour flight to Singapore from Delhi,” read a section of the column, written by Ajay Awtaney, the founder and editor of Live From A Lounge.
We then compared the two photos and found striking similarities, suggesting that the photo posted by Ajay was digitally altered.
Subsequently, the Desk concluded that an old and unrelated photo was shared on social media as recent, falsely linking it to Rahul Gandhi.
CLAIM
Rahul Gandhi booked a flight to Bangkok on June 5, a day after the announcement of Lok Sabha election results.
FACT
The photo, dating back to 2019, has been digitally altered to add Rahul Gandhi's name to it. The original photo is of a boarding pass of Ajay Awtaney, founder of a travel website.
CONCLUSION
Several social media users shared a photo of a purported bass of a June 5 flight to Bangkok, booked in the name of Rahul Gandhi. In its investigation, the Desk found that an old and unrelated photo was digitally altered and shared on social media as recent with a false claim.
(This story was originally published by PTI, and republished by NDTV as part of the Shakti Collective.)