A screenshot of an ‘ABP News’ bulletin is being shared on social media claiming that the Delhi High Court had passed a judgement recognising Prithviraj Chauhan as a Gurjar King and issued directions to the ‘Samrat Prithviraj’ makers to not depict Prithviraj Chauhan as a Rajput King in their film. Let’s verify the claim made in the post.
Claim: ‘ABP News’ bulletin reporting the Delhi High Court’s judgement on Akshay Kumar’s ‘Samrat Prithviraj’ film.
Fact: The photo shared in the post is a morphed one. ‘ABP News’ did not report such news recently on their news channel. Following the Yash Raj Films’ clarification of absolute neutrality and no caste or religious references in their film, the Delhi High Court had disposed of a plea filed against ‘Samrat Prithviraj’ film for allegedly depicting the ruler as a Rajput King. The Delhi High Court did not issue any such order recognising Prithviraj Chauhan as a Gurjar King. Hence, the claim made in the post is FALSE.
When we searched to check whether the Delhi High Court had passed any such judgement on the Akshay Kumar starrer Samrat Prithviraj film, we could not find any news report about a court order recognising Prithviraj Chauhan as a Gurjar King. On 01 June 2022, the Delhi High Court disposed of a plea filed against Akshay Kumar starrer ‘Samrat Prithviraj’ for allegedly depicting Prithviraj as a Rajput king. Reporting this news, several news websites published articles. They can be seen here and here.
The Gurjar Samaj Sarv Sangthan Sabha Ekta Samanya Samiti had filed this petition claiming that ‘Samrat Prithviraj’ film was based on the book Prithviraj Raso, in which king Prithviraj was referred to as a Gurjar warrior. Citing certain articles and discourses, the petitioner alleged that the makers are promoting Prithviraj Chauhan as a Rajput king. Responding to these allegations, Yash Raj Films stated to the court that the movie is absolutely neutral and does not refer to any caste, either Rajput or Gurjar. Accordingly, the Delhi High Court has disposed of the case. However, the Court made it clear that the respondents shall remain bound by their statement.
When we searched to check whether ABP News has reported any such news on their channel, we could not find any such news report published on the ‘ABP News’ YouTube channel and on their official Twitter handle. On comparing the ‘Breaking News’ template text in the post with the text of the actual ‘Breaking News’ template of the ‘ABP’ news channel, we could observe the differences in the font. The ‘ABP News’ bulletin writes the Hindi text of the High Court as ‘हाईकोर्ट’. But the screenshot shared in the post refers High Court as ‘हाई कोर्ट’. From all these pieces of evidence, it can be concluded that the ‘ABP’ News screenshot shared in the post is a morphed one.
‘ABP News’ through a tweet has also clarified that the screenshot of its template that is being widely shared on social media is fake and that no such news has been broadcasted by them.
To sum it up, this ‘ABP News’ bulletin reporting Delhi High Court’s judgement against ‘Samrat Prithviraj’ film is a morphed one.
Update (07 June 2022):
This article has been updated with the clarification tweet from ABP.
