Woman caught on video using Instagram while driving, identified as Rishi Sunak’s wife Akshata Murthy
Decision [False]
- The woman seen in the viral video is not Rishi Sunak’s wife Akshata Murthy. An unrelated video has been misattributed.
What is the claim?
Recently, a video that went viral on social media claimed that UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s wife Akshata Murthy was caught using Instagram while driving. The footage shows a confrontation where a man questions a woman sitting in the driver’s seat of a car about her use of Instagram while driving. The woman responds with nonverbal head gestures rather than giving any verbal response.
The video spread quickly on Facebook, with many users posting comments such as, “Rishi Sunak’s wife caught using mobile phone to scan Instagram while driving.” One such post received 811 reactions, 477 comments and 461 shares.
However, an older, unrelated video is being shared of Sunak’s wife using her phone while driving. The woman seen in the video is not a statue.
What did we find?
Upon examining the video, it becomes clear that the woman depicted is not an idol. A side-by-side comparison of the woman and the statue in the video shows that they are indeed different persons. This comparison highlights the misinformation being spread.
Further investigation revealed that the video contained a watermark, “@cyclingmikey”, which was linked to the YouTube channel run by Michael van Erp, also known as Cyclingmikey. Van Earp is famous for documenting traffic violations in London, mainly focusing on drivers distracted by their mobile phones.
A review of CyclingMikey’s YouTube channel revealed the original video posted on July 21, 2021, which also includes the viral footage. Notably, the video does not reference Sunak or Murthy, negating claims linking them to the incident. The viral clip is visible on the channel in a 2:52-minute video, in a segment running from 2:05 to 2:13 minutes.
Logically, the facts could not ascertain the identity of the woman driving the car in the viral video. However, the said person is not an idol.
Decision
The claim that the video shows Akshata Murthy using her phone while driving is baseless. The viral footage is, in fact, an unrelated video from 2021, which has been mistakenly linked to the statue. Therefore, we have marked the claim as false.
This report first appeared logically on Facts.com, and is republished on ABP Live as part of a special arrangement. Apart from the headline, no changes have been made in the report of ABP Live.