A photo featuring senior AAP leader, former Delhi Deputy CM and Education Minister Manish Sisodia, alongside Congress leader and Supreme Court advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi, is going viral on social media (here, here, here & here). The accompanying claim suggests that Manish Sisodia owns a Rs. 50,000 Dyson air purifier at his home while people in Delhi are suffering from severe air pollution and that he is also keeping an obscene painting in his room. The photo shows a nude painting on the wall and equipment that appears to be an air purifier. Through this article, let’s fact-check the claims made in these posts.
Claim: Photo showing an obscene painting and an air purifier in the room of former Delhi Education Minister Manish Sisodia at his residence.
Fact: The viral photo shows visuals of the residence of Congress leader and Supreme Court advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi. According to reports, on 10 August 2024, former Delhi Deputy CM Manish Sisodia met with senior advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi at his residence to express his gratitude for helping him secure bail from the Supreme Court in the Delhi excise policy case. This photo was taken during that meeting at Singhvi’s residence. Hence, the claim made in the post is FALSE.
To learn more about the viral video, we conducted a Google reverse image search. This search led us to the same photo featuring former Delhi Deputy CM and Education Minister Manish Sisodia, alongside Congress leader and Supreme Court advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi, shared by the ‘IANS’ news agency on X (formerly Twitter) on 10 August 2024. The caption of the post read: ‘In Picture: Delhi Deputy CM Manish Sisodia met with his lawyer Adv. Abhishek Singhvi.’
Further searches revealed several reports (here, here, here, here, here, and here) featuring additional photos of this meeting. According to these reports, on 10 August 2024, senior AAP leader and former Deputy CM Manish Sisodia met with senior advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi at his residence to express his gratitude for helping him secure bail from the Supreme Court in the excise policy cases.
The Aam Aadmi Party’s official social media handles (here, here) also shared photos of this meeting between Manish Sisodia and Abhishek Manu Singhvi at Singhvi’s residence on 10 August 2024. Based on this information, it is clear that the viral photo shows a nude painting and an air purifier in the home of Abhishek Manu Singhvi.
Manish Sisodia was arrested on 26 February 2023, in connection with the alleged excise scam. On 09 August 2024, the Supreme Court granted him bail in the excise policy cases, criticizing the lower courts for deliberately delaying the trial. He spent nearly 17 months in Tihar Jail (here).
The painting featured in the viral photo is an artwork by Indian artist Francis Newton Souza. Upon closely observing the photo, we can notice his name on the painting (here, here,& here). Other paintings of Francis Newton Souza can be seen here. According to reports, Francis Newton Souza’s painting ‘The Lovers’ sold for $4,890,000 at Christie’s Asian Art Week in March 2024.
To sum up, this viral photo shows visuals of the residence of Congress leader and Supreme Court advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi.
