Fact Check: Does viral video show cricket legend Kapil Dev being abducted?

Hyderabad: Recently, former Indian cricketer Gautam Gambhir shared a video on his X profile that has taken the Internet by storm. The video allegedly shows former cricketer Kapil Dev with his mouth covered and hand tied behind his back, being led away by two persons.

The former opener posted the video with the caption, “Anyone else received this clip, too? Hope it’s not actually @therealkapildev and that Kapil Paaji is fine! (sic)” The X post of Gambhir has garnered over five million views at the time of publishing this article.

Many X users have also shared the video. Click here, here and here to view the posts.

Fact Check

NewsMeter found that the claim is misleading. The person in the video is Kapil Dev but the video is for the promotion of the upcoming ODI world cup in India.

We started our investigation by scanning Gambhir’s X profile for any further updates on the same and found a tweet that cleared the hush around the video.

Praising Kapil Dev for his natural acting, which created real concern among many, Gambhir tweeted, “Areh @therealkapildev paaji well played! Acting ka World Cup bhi aap hi jeetoge! Ab hamesha yaad rahega ki ICC Men's Cricket World Cup is free on @DisneyPlusHS mobile. (sic)”

Taking this as a cue, further search led us to a tweet depicting the same promo as seen in Gambhir’s tweet on the official X handle of Disney+ Hotstar. The same promo was also found on YouTube as well.

The tweet was captioned, “@therealkapildev paaji ko kidnap kyun karna? #DisneyPlusHotstar hai na! Dekho poora ICC Men's Cricket World Cup bilkul FREE on mobile! Data saver mode ke saath! #ItnaSabFreeKa #WorldCupOnHotstar (sic)”

The ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup 2023 is set to commence from October 5 to November 19. The promo shows villagers abducting former captain Kapil Dev in order to compromise with the police that the electricity must be there at the time of the match. The police then inform the villagers that the match can be seen on Disney+ Hotstar for free in the data saver mode.

Hence, it is evident that Kapil Dev is safe and fine. The abduction clip is from a promo shoot.