Fact Check | Digitally altered video of FM Nirmala Sitharaman falsely shared claiming she endorsed investment scheme

New Delhi: A video of a news report by a leading English news broadcaster was recently shared on social media, with users claiming that in the video Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman had endorsed a government investment scheme.

However, the PTI Fact Check Desk investigated and found this claim to be false. The minister did not endorse the scheme, and the video was digitally altered to promote fraudulent investments. Claim shared in the social media post was false.

Claim 

A Facebook user recently shared a video of an alleged CNN-News18 report claiming that Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has endorsed a government investment scheme. 

In the video, Sitharaman can be heard saying, “I am here to tell you about an automotive system we have been developing over the past two years, which is already generating additional income for many Indians. I am not promising you millions in a single day but earning Rs 50,000 a day is completely realistic, to the math yourself…You have to register and invest Rs 21,000 in the account, after that you will see your money grow almost daily…” 

The Desk ran the video through the InVid tool and extracted multiple keyframes. Upon running one of the keyframes through Google Lens, the Desk found users had shared the same video but cited that scammers misused a Sitharaman video and dubbed it with AI to promote illegal schemes. 

One such user, name V.C. Sajjanar, IPS, shared the video on X (formerly Twitter), the caption read: “Look how scamsters have misused a video of our Hon’ble Union Finance Minister @nsitharaman is dubbing it with an AI-generated voice to promote their illegal schemes. No one can profit from network marketing without others bearing the loss — that’s the harsh truth. Since the start of my career, I’ve been relentlessly fighting against MLM companies, and the misuse of AI has only strengthened my resolve to protect innocent people from falling into such traps. Don’t trust everything you see online!” 

Here is the link to the post, and below is a screenshot. 

Taking the investigation ahead and to verify, the Desk conducted a customised keyword search to find reports that mentioned that the Union Minister advocated about the investment platform, but it did not yield any report. 

The Desk then ran a reverse image search of the keyframe featuring Sitharaman. It came across a live stream by DD News dated February 1, 2025, of Sitharaman’s press conference after presenting the Union Budget. We heard the entire 49:44 press conference but Sitharaman did not mention any investment or trading platform. It only indicates that the viral video was digitally altered. 

Here is the link to the video, and below is a screenshot. 

In the next part of the investigation, we used an AI tool, Resemble Detect, to check the authenticity of Nirmala Sitharaman's voice. The viral audio has been edited according to the results obtained after scanning. Here is the link and below is a screenshot of the result. 

We used another detector tool, elevenlabs, and according to the results found there, the viral audio was edited 97%. Below is a screenshot of the results and here is the link. 

Subsequently, the Desk concluded that Union Minister Nirmala Sitharaman’s video has been digitally altered as she has not endorsed any government investment scheme. 

CLAIM

Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman endorses the government investment scheme.

FACT

Union Minister Nirmala Sitharaman’s video has been digitally altered as she has not endorsed any government investment scheme.

CONCLUSION

A video of an alleged news report by a leading English news broadcaster was recently shared on social media with users claiming that Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has endorsed a government investment scheme. In its investigation, the Desk found that no such endorsement was made by the minister and the video has been digitally altered to promote their illegal schemes.

This story was originally published by PTI Fact Check, and republished by Deccan Herald as part of the Shakti Collective.