Authors
Pankaj Menon is a fact-checker based out of Delhi who enjoys ‘digital sleuthing’ and calling out misinformation. He has completed his MA in International Relations from Madras University and has worked with organisations like NDTV, Times Now and Deccan Chronicle online in the past.
With the Assembly elections over and the election results due shortly, all eyes are on Gujarat. But the battle for perception is far from over on social media, with opposing camps sharing claims and counterclaims. One such post, shared by TMC national spokesperson Saket Gokhale has snowballed into a controversy, resulting in the leader’s arrest. Gokahle, sharing an alleged report by a Gujarat based paper, had claimed that almost Rs 30 Crore had been spent on the PM’s Morbi visit after 130 people were killed in a bridge collapse.
The archive copy of the tweet can be found here.
In addition to Gokhale, several other users on social media also shared the same post with the same claim.
Fact check/Verification
We began verifying the claim by checking the original post on the handle of @thedaxpatel, who, in response to a comment, had clarified that the news snippet was from Gujarat Samachar. However, Newschecker was unable to find any such report on the news website.
Newschecker then reached out to Gujarat Samachar for clarification, and were informed that the viral news clipping was fake and that they have not published any such report.
We also found that several users also shared a tweet by PIB fact check in response to Gokhale’s tweet, which clarified that there was no such RTI response from any department.
Newschecker has also reached out to the Morbi district magistrate for their response on the same. The article will be updated with their response when we receive it.
Conclusion
A fake news snippet, falsely citing a non-existent RTI response, is going viral on social media claiming Rs 30 Cr was spent on PM’s Morbi visit.
Result: False
(This article was first published by Prathamesh Khunt for Newschecker Gujarati)
Our Source
Tweet By PIB Factcheck , on DEC 2022
Telephone conversation with GSTV
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Authors
Pankaj Menon is a fact-checker based out of Delhi who enjoys ‘digital sleuthing’ and calling out misinformation. He has completed his MA in International Relations from Madras University and has worked with organisations like NDTV, Times Now and Deccan Chronicle online in the past.
