A photo (here, here and here) is being widely shared on social media, claiming that former Chief Justice of the Orissa High Court, Justice S. Muralidhar, worked as an advocate for Congress leader Sonia Gandhi when she filed her nomination for the 2004 General Elections. Let’s verify the claim made in the post.
Claim: The photo shows Justice S. Muralidhar with Sonia Gandhi while she was filing her nomination during the 2004 General Elections.
Fact: The photo shows Sonia Gandhi filing her nomination from Rae Bareli for the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. The person assisting her is advocate K.C. Kaushik, not Justice S. Muralidhar. Hence, the claim made in the post is FALSE.
A reverse image search of the viral image led us to the same photo (archive) published by the official Twitter handle of the Congress Party on 11 April 2019. The tweet mentions that the picture was taken when Sonia Gandhi filed her nomination from Rae Bareli for the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. Media reports covering Sonia Gandhi’s nomination can be seen here and here. At that time, Justice Muralidhar served as a Delhi High Court Judge.
Taking a cue from this, we searched for the identity of the lawyer in the viral photo and found that he was K.C. Kaushik, not Justice S. Muralidhar. We also came across a video by the news agency ANI, which identified K.C. Kaushik as Rahul Gandhi’s lawyer when he filed his nomination from Wayanad. A comparison of photos of K.C. Kaushik and Justice S. Muralidhar can be seen below.
Moreover, when this post went viral, K.C. Kaushik clarified that it was him who was present during Sonia Gandhi’s nomination filing on 11 April 2019, to assist her and condemned the fake news that maligned the image of Justice S. Muralidhar.
To sum up, the person seen with Sonia Gandhi during her nomination filing is K.C. Kaushik, not Justice S. Muralidhar.
