A group photo showing a young woman with Prime Minister Narendra Modi is doing the rounds on social media. Many users claim that the woman in the image is Jyoti Malhotra, the alleged Pakistani ‘spy’, who was recently arrested.
A Facebook user posted the image with a caption: जासूस ज्योति मल्होत्रा पुरानी खिलाड़ी हैकुमार विश्वास ने सही कहा था मेरे देश का प्रधानमंत्री ऐसे घटिया लोगों को फॉलो करता है और उनके साथ फोटो भी खिंचवाता है (English version: Spy Jyoti Malhotra is an old player. Kumar Vishwas was right when he said that the Prime Minister of my country follows such cheap people and also gets photographs taken with them.)
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FACT CHECK
NewsMobile fact-checked the claim and found it to be false.
Putting the viral image through Reverse Image Search, the NM team detected a YouTube video on Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s official channel, showing the same group of gamers meeting him as seen in the viral image. The video, dated April 13, 2024, is titled: “India’s top gamers meet PM Modi | Game On ft. NaMo.”
According to the video description, PM Modi interacted with and played PC and VR games alongside several prominent Indian gamers, including Tirth Mehta, Payal Dhare, Animesh Agarwal, Anshu Bisht, Naman Mathur, Mithilesh Patankar, and Ganesh Gangadhar. The woman seen in the viral image is identified as Payal Dhare, a popular gamer, who is also clearly visible in the video interacting with Modi.
Dhare also shared the video of her interaction with PM Modi on her official Instagram handle, saying, “An honour to be the only female gamer at the table, discussing the future of esports, gaming, and content creation with PM Modi. Thank you for recognising our voices and paving the way for inclusivity in this industry. Dreams turned into reality today!”
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A news report also confirmed that the seven Indian gamers who met PM Modi were: Animesh Agrawal, Naman Mathur, Mithilesh Patankar, Payal Dhare, Tirth Mehta, Ganesh Gangadhar, and Anshu Bisht. And, Payal was the only female gamer present at the event.
Therefore, it is confirmed that the woman seen in the viral image is not the controversial YouTuber Jyoti Malhotra but gamer Payal Dhare.
