A video of a man speaking in favour of the Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA) has gone viral falsely identifying him as Congress MLA Anil Upadhyay, who does not exist.
In fact, no MLA (member of the legislative assembly) by the name Anil Upadhyay exists. BOOM has done multiple fact-checks proving the same.
In the nearly 3 minute long video, the man speaks in support of the new citizenship law and defends Prime Minister Narendra Modi's decision of implementing it.
BOOM on several occasions has debunked several claims related to the fictional MLA Anil Upadhyay. Separately we were able to trace the man shown in the viral video to his social media accounts.
He is Mohan Chandra Pandey and he calls himself a "Modi fan". However, Pandey has even shared some posts mentioning him as a BJP/Congress MLA without correcting them even once. You can view an archived version of the post here.
Meet Anil Upadhyay, A Fictional Politician Made Up By India's Fake News Brigade
BOOM found out that the viral video was hosted as a Watch Party by Pandey on his Facebook page on December 18, 2019, and originally shared by him on December 17.
The same video had been later picked up by several Facebook groups and pages with different claims.
Ghost MLA Anil Upadhyay?
Anil Upadhyay is a fictitious character made up by India's fake news brigade to peddle harmful political disinformation. Interestingly, the name has been used to target different political parties. BOOM was the first news organisation to reveal the existence of a fake MLA to peddle disinformation.
Meet Anil Upadhyay, A Fictional Politician Made Up By India's Fake News Brigade
Also Read: Republic Bharat Passes Off Video Of Man Praising PM Modi As Congress MLA
Fictitious Anil Upadhyay Is Back, This Time As BJP MLA Against CAA
Fact Check
In the course of another fact check, BOOM had been able to contact the man in this viral video - Mohan Chandra Pandey - who had told us that he is not connected to any political party and is only a "Modi fan".
Also, at the beginning of the viral video he is addressed by another person as 'Pandey ji'.
BOOM had earlier traced the social media accounts of Pandey who had himself shared several similar videos from his Facebook page and Twitter handle.
He had also tweeted to Republic TV on April 26, 2019 a few hours after the show was aired showing him as a Congress MLA, telling them that it was him in the video they aired.
@republic sir your TV news at 7.14 am shows me as anil upadhaya a Congress m l a in viral videob while I am a common man Mohan Pandey. I admire you and like your channel . I hope you will rectify this mistake and oblige .
— M0han PANDEY (@M0hanPandey) April 26, 2019
Regards
BOOM could also trace the same viral video to Pandey's account on December 17, 2019.