Fact Check: MLC Kavitha’s suspension – party cadre set fire to BRS Bhavan? No, video is from 2021
After the BRS party announced the suspension of MLC K Kavitha, a video of a fire accident at the BRS Bhavan is going viral.
By K Sherly Sharon
Claim:The video shows BRS cadre celebrating MLC Kavitha’s suspension from the party by setting fire to the BRS Bhavan.
Fact:The claim is false. The video of the fire accident at the BRS Bhavan is from March 30, 2021.
Hyderabad: Bharatiya Rashtra Samiti (BRS) party leader K Chandrashekar Rao suspended his daughter and MLC K Kavitha on September 2 (Tuesday) over ‘anti-party activities’.
“Party leadership is taking this matter seriously as recent behaviour and ongoing anti-party activities of MLC K Kavitha are damaging the BRS,” the BRS party said on X. “Therefore, party president K Chandrasekhar Rao has decided to suspend K Kavitha with immediate effect.”
In this context, a video of a burning building is going viral on social media. The video is being circulated with the claim that celebrations over Kavitha’s suspension led to a fire at BRS Bhavan.
Sharing the video on X, a user wrote, “BRS activists set fire to Telangana Bhavan, celebrating Kalvakuntla Kavitha’s suspension from the party. #BRS #Kavitha #Hyderabad” (Archive)
Posts sharing similar claims can be seen here and here. (Archive 1 and Archive 2)
Fact Check
NewsMeter found that the claim is false. The video is from 2021, showing BRS cadre celebrating the victory MLC elections.
Using keyword searches, we did not find any credible news reports about fire accidents at the BRS Bhavan on Tuesday. We extracted the keyframes of the viral video and, upon reverse image search, we found that the viral video was posted to YouTube on March 20, 2021.
Siasat Daily uploaded the same video on their YouTube channel with the title, ‘Fire accident at Telangana Bhavan during Celebration’. The upload was dated March 20, 2021. The viral clip starts at the 00:53-minute mark.
The same video was posted to YouTube on March 20, 2021, on the YOYO TV Channel with the title ‘Accident in TRS Bhavan| TRS Bhavan Visuals | Telangana MLC Elections Results 2021 | CM KCR | YOYO TV’.
The Times of India published a report on the same day, sharing a screenshot from the video. The headline reads, ‘Minor fire breaks out at Telangana Bhavan’.
The report stated that the fire at the Telangana Bhavan started when the party cadre burst crackers to celebrate the victory of Surabhi Vani Devi, who won the election from the Mahbubnagar-Rangareddy-
“According to the fire department officials, the fire is suspected to have started after the sparks from the crackers fell on the plants which were being grown on the portico in front of the main entrance of the building,” stated the report.
The video does not show the fire accident at the BRS Bhavan after the suspension of MLC K Kavitha from the party. It is an old video from 2021.
Therefore, NewsMeter concludes that the claim is false.
