An image of Congress President Sonia Gandhi filing election nomination papers is circulating on social media along with an image of Justice S Murlidhar. The judge was recently transferred from Delhi high court to Punjab and Haryana high court. The timing of his transfer triggered controversy as it came hours after a bench comprising him and Justice Talwant Singh rebuked the Delhi police for not lodging FIRs against BJP leaders for their hate speeches.

While sharing the two images, Facebook page ‘Media Mafia’ claimed that Murlidhar was Sonia Gandhi’s lawyer when she filed her nomination papers. The post further alleges that Justice S Murlidhar has ties with the Congress party and served as assistant to party leader Manish Tiwari.

The complete message in Hindi reads, “पता चल रहा है कि जो जज साहब वारिस पठान ओवैसी भाई सोनिया गांधी प्रियंका गांधी और शाहीन बाग में दिए जा रहे दूसरे हजारों नफरत वाले भाषणों को न सुनकर सिर्फ कपिल मिश्रा का भाषण सुने वह जज साहब जज बनने के पहले 10 सालों तक कांग्रेसी नेता मनीष तिवारी के असिस्टेंट हुआ करते थे और कांग्रेश के जमाने के कॉलेजियम ने ही उन्हें दिल्ली हाईकोर्ट का जज बनाया था इतना ही नहीं सोनिया गांधी का पर्चा भरते समय वह सोनिया गांधी के वकील थे.”

The images are also being shared on WhatsApp with an identical claim.

Fact-check

Alt News found that the man seen with Sonia Gandhi is lawyer K C Kaushik and not Justice S Murlidhar. A Google reverse image search revealed that the photo was tweeted by the official handle of Youth Congress on April 11, 2019. On the day Sonia Gandhi filed her nomination from Rae Bareli, Justice Murlidhar was serving as a judge in Delhi high court.

UPA Chairperson Smt. Sonia Gandhi files her nomination in Rae Bareli. Our love and endless support are with Sonia ji.#AbHogaNYAY #IndiaElections2019 pic.twitter.com/icqsu4uIox — Youth Congress (@IYC) April 11, 2019

Below we have compared Kaushik, as seen in the photograph with Gandhi, with a screengrab taken from a video byte of the lawyer. He has been identified by several media outlets as Rahul Gandhi’s lawyer on objections raised on the Congress leader’s nomination for 2019 Lok Sabha elections.

An image of Sonia Gandhi filing nomination for the 2019 general election along with lawyer KC Kaushik is circulating on social media. He is being falsely identified as Justice S Murlidhar who was recently transferred after rebuking Delhi police for not lodging FIRs against BJP leaders for hate speeches in the wake of Delhi riots. Several on social media are attempting to portray that Murlidhar has ties with the Congress party.

Donate to Alt News!

Independent journalism that speaks truth to power and is free of corporate and political control is possible only when people start contributing towards the same. Please consider donating towards this endeavour to fight fake news and misinformation.



Donate Now To make an instant donation, click on the "Donate Now" button above. For information regarding donation via Bank Transfer/Cheque/DD, click here.

You could follow Alt News posts either via our Facebook page or by following us on Twitter or by subscribing to our E-mail updates.