Hyderabad: Ahead of Jharkhand’s Assembly election starting on 13 November, Chief Minister Hemant Soren is campaigning to secure a second term. Voting will close on 20 November, and the results will come out on 23 November.
In this context, a video of Soren has been circulating online. It shows him purportedly promising free shrouds (kafans) for everyone in the state. The video is accompanied by claims suggesting that the promise of shrouds was made ahead of the 2024 Assembly elections.
An X user shared the video and wrote, “The Chief Minister will provide free shrouds (kafans) to the people of Jharkhand. Wow, Chief Minister! In the race to stay ahead with new freebies, no effort was made to understand the meaning behind this announcement.” (Archive)
Fact Check
NewsMeter found that the claim is false as Hemant Soren had announced free shrouds for everyone in 2021 during the second phase of Covid-19.
Upon conducting a reverse image search of the video’s keyframes, we found it was published by Navbharat Times on 25 May 2021. The viral clip appears in the first 17 seconds of the 4:10-minute video.
According to the channel, Hemant Soren announced free shrouds for everyone to address the difficulties people were facing in purchasing them during the second phase of the Covid-19 lockdown in 2021.
We also found the viral clip published by Zee News on 25 May 2021. The channel reported that the Jharkhand government had announced the distribution of free shrouds for patients dying of Covid-19.
We also came across similar news reports from Aaj Tak and Jansatta dated 25 May 2021.
Hence, we conclude that the video does not show Soren announcing free shrouds ahead of the 2024 Jharkhand State elections.
This story was originally published by NewsMeter as part of the Shakti Collective. Apart from the headline, excerpt and introduction, this story has not been edited by ThePrint staff.