DigitEye India Fact Checkers
A viral video of a man dancing in front of the camera in nothing but a black shirt is going viral on social media. People allege that the man in the video is Saurabh Kirpal, a Senior Advocate at the Delhi High Court and an LGBTQ+ rights activist. The video is being shared on WhatsApp with homophobic messages. The claim that is going viral with the video reads,
*ये हैं सौरव कृपाल*
*SC के भावी न्यायाधीश**इनके पिता बी.एन. कृपाल*
*2002 में SC के मुख्य न्यायाधीश थे**इसलिए परिवारवाद परम्परा के तहत*
*चीफ जस्टिस चंद्रचूड़ के लिए**समलैंगिक विवाह को मान्यता*
*अत्यंत महत्वपूर्ण है*
(Translation: This is Saurav Kirpal. Future SC judge. His father B.N. Kripal was the Chief Justice of SC in 2002. Hence under the family tradition, for Chief Justice Chandrachud, recognition of gay marriage is crucial)
The video has gone viral after the apex court refused to recognise same-sex marriages in India. Digiteye India received a request to fact check this viral video on WhatsApp.
FACT CHECK
The Digiteye India team conducted a keyword search on social media to see if the claim went viral earlier as well. We came across multiple tweets that shared the same video with the same claim. Some of them date back to May 2023.
*ये हैं सौरव कृपाल*
*SC के भावी न्यायाधीश**इनके पिता बी.एन. कृपाल*
*2002 में SC के मुख्य न्यायाधीश थे**इसलिए परिवारवाद परम्परा के तहत*
*चीफ जस्टिस चंद्रचूड़ के लिए**समलैंगिक विवाह को मान्यता*
*अत्यंत महत्वपूर्ण है* pic.twitter.com/cVfwjt80hs— Manoj Srivastava (@ManojSr60583090) May 2, 2023
We looked up for more information on Saurabh Kirpal. The man in the video is not him. While he does look like him, the senior advocate is much older and he is 51 years old. A BBC report that dates back to November 18, 2021, reveals that Saurabh Kirpal is an openly gay lawyer. He is the son of B N Kirpal, former Chief Justice of India who served as the 31st Chief Justice of India from May 6, 2002 until his retirement on November 7, 2002.
To find out more about the viral video, we divided the video into multiple keyframes and ran a reverse image search on Google. One of the results led us to this tweet that dates back to April 25, 2023. The user had shared the same video but here, we can see the account that had uploaded the video originally.
At first I thought this was Sunil Gavaskar 😭pic.twitter.com/ztDf0wb5Nj
— Badass Dad 🚬 🍺 (@Badass_Superdad) April 25, 2023
We used this clue and headed on to the Instagram page of @damandiaries. It took us to the page of Daman S Choudhary who is the co-founder of a talent agency called Runway Lifestyle. Daman regularly updates his Instagram with pictures of him posing with Bollywood celebrities or dancing to viral songs on reels. We scrolled his profile further and found the viral video that he had posted on his profile on January 8, 2022.
While we were looking further, we also came across a tweet by Saurabh Kirpal. In a tweet dating back to May 4, 2023, the senior advocate had put out a statement. He said, “There’s a video of a man dancing, allegedly me, that’s gone viral. a) it’s not me, b) mocking anyone this way is disgusting homophobia. Bigots may cloak their hatred behind justifications, but it remains vile. Shame on them.”
There’s a video of a man dancing, allegedly me, that’s gone viral. a) it’s not me, b) mocking anyone this way is disgusting homophobia. Bigots may cloak their hatred behind justifications, but it remains vile. Shame on them
— saurabh kirpal (@KirpalSaurabh) May 4, 2023
Saurabh Kirpal has been recommmended by the Supreme Court collegium to be elevated as a judge in the Delhi High Court. If this recommendation is accepted, Kirpal would make history and become India’s first openly gay judge. However, the collegium indicated that the nomination was rejected by the central authorities, citing Kirpal’s partner’s Swiss nationality and his public acknowledgement of his sexual orientation as reasons for the decision. The court, however, has nominated him again stating that his elevation would promote diversity.
The claim is, hence, false.
CLAIM: A viral video shows Senior Advocate Saurabh Kirpal dancing to a song by Badshah in front of the camera.
CONCLUSION: The man in the viral video is not Saurabh Kirpal. He is Daman S Choudhary who is the co-founder of a talent agency called Runway Lifestyle. Daman regularly posts pictures with Bollywood celebrities or videos of him dancing to viral songs on reels. The viral video was posted on his profile on January 8, 2022.
RATING: Misrepresentation — 
