A screenshot of a breaking news bulletin purportedly telecast by the ‘Aaj Tak’ news channel is being shared on social media claiming that journalist Suresh Chavhanke’s wife had eloped with a Muslim man. The post claims that Suresh Chavhanke, the Editor-in-Chief of the Sudarshan News channel, who runs campaigns against love jihad on his channel had himself become a victim of the love jihad. Let’s verify the claim made in the post.
Claim: Screenshot of ‘Aaj Tak’ breaking news bulletin reporting Suresh Chavhanke’s wife eloping with a Muslim man.
Fact: The image shared in the post is a doctored one. The image was created using an online breaking news template published by a YouTube channel named ‘MTC Tutorials’. ‘Aaj Tak’ published a fact-check clarifying that the purported breaking news template is a doctored one and was not published by them. Suresh Chavhanke’s wife Maya Chavhanke too dismissed these rumours about her eloping with a Muslim man. Hence, the claim made in the post is False.
When we searched to check whether there are any news reports about Sudarshan News channel Editor-in-Chief Suresh Chavhanke’s wife eloping with a Muslim man, we could not find any news reports confirming this. On comparing the screenshot of the usual breaking news template telecast by the ‘Aaj Tak’ news channel with that of the image shared in the post, we found significant differences in the two templates. The original template of the ‘Aaj Tak’ news channel displays the word breaking news in all capital letters (‘BREAKING NEWS’), whereas the template shared in the post displays breaking news as ‘Breaking News’. Also, in the original ‘Aaj Tak’ news template, there is no news scrolling at the bottom as shown in the viral image shared in the post.
When we searched for further sources, we found that the ‘Aaj Tak’ news website had published a fact-check article regarding this fake news bulletin attributed to their news channel on social media. ‘Aaj Tak’ through the fact-check article clarified that the purported breaking news bulletin is doctored and emphasized that they did not report any such news about journalist Suresh Chavhanke’s wife eloping with a Muslim man. ‘Aaj Tak’ in the article reported that the breaking news bulletin was created using an online breaking news template design published by a YouTube channel named ‘MTC Tutorials’.
Suresh Chavhanke, the Editor-in-Chief of the Sudarshan News channel, tweeted the image in the viral screenshot on 27 September 2020, on the occasion of his wife Maya Chavhanke’s birthday. Suresh Chavhanke through a tweet dismissed these false rumours about his wife eloping with a Muslim man. Suresh Chavhanke’s wife Maya Chavhanke too dismissed these rumours calling it false propaganda intentionally created by unrighteous people.
To sum it up, this purported breaking news bulletin of ‘Aaj Tak’ reporting journalist Suresh Chavhanke’s wife eloping with a Muslim man is a doctored one.
