The Brazilian woman whose photograph became the focal point of Congress leader Rahul Gandhi’s “vote chori” allegation has denied any connection to India or even to modelling. On Wednesday, Gandhi showed her picture and claimed that thousands of fake voters had been registered in Haryana's electoral rolls, asking, "Yeh kaun hai ?” Her photograph went viral and was described by Indian media as that of a 'Brazilian model.'
Who is the Brazilian woman?
Larissa Nery, a hairdresser from Belo Horizonte, capital of Brazil’s Minas Gerais state, in a social media video said she was shocked to see her face being shown across Indian television screens and social media platforms. “Guys, I can’t believe these people are gossiping. They’re using an old photo of mine; I was 18 or 20 in that photo. They’re portraying me as Indian to scam people. What madness! What craziness is this? What world do we live in?”- she said.
‘Never been to India,’ says Nery
Nery, who runs a small salon in Brazil, explained that she has never been outside the country, let alone taken a trip to India. “I think all of this is a comedy,” she said over the phone to Luiz Fernando Menezes, a senior reporter at the Brazilian fact-checking agency Aos Fatos, which partnered with The Print to confirm her identity.
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At first, Nery said she thought Menezes was a scammer. "I thought he was a criminal trying to scam me.” She said she only realised he was a genuine journalist once the story came out, remembering how strange it felt to be linked to a controversy on another continent.
After the news broke, Nery took to Instagram, where she has about 5,400 followers, to express her utter disbelief, and later she made her profile private. “They had used my picture as if I were Indian to scam voters. Can you believe it? What kind of madness are we living in?" she said in Portuguese, in the social media video.
