Key Points:
- The BJP shared a video that FALSELY claimed the death of a Journalist who works for India Today who, according to BJP, was killed in Bengal’s post poll violence.
- “BJP IT Cell is now claiming I am Manik Moitra [spelt ‘Moitro’ in the video] and died in Sitalkuchi. Please don’t believe these fake posts and please don’t worry. I repeat: I am (still) alive,” Abhro tweeted.
- As an action towards the video claiming him to be dead, a shocked Abhro Banerjee is now planning of a legal process.
Today seems like a Black Day for the Bharatiya Janata Party. You ask why? The BJP shared a video that FALSELY claimed the death of a Journalist who works for India Today who, according to BJP, was killed in Bengal’s post poll violence.
And guess what’s the news? The Journalist, Abhro Banerjee, tweeted from his official Twitter account on 6th May, afternoon, saying that ‘HE IS ALIVE’!
In the tweet, Abhro said that his picture has been misused and is being used to circulate misinformation by the social media wing of the party.
Abhro Banerjee was identified as “Manik Moitro” in the video that the BJP shared.
Mintu Barman was another man who was in the video and termed dead in Sitalkuchi. No one was identified as ‘Manik Moitro’ until Abhro’s tweet came up.
“I am Abhro Banerjee, living and hale and hearty and around 1,300 km away from Sitalkuchi,” the journalist tweeted.
“BJP IT Cell is now claiming I am Manik Moitra [spelt ‘Moitro’ in the video] and died in Sitalkuchi. Please don’t believe these fake posts and please don’t worry. I repeat: I am (still) alive,” Abhro added.
Covering up, as per India Today reports, BJP gave a statement saying, “The image of Mr Abhro Banerjee was erroneously included in the video while using an article by him as a source for the content.” Plus, the party included a hyperlink and an image link in its statement.
Living in the National Capital region, Abhro shared the screenshot from the video where his face flashed from Facebook and also shared the link along with the Tweet.
The video has been taken down from BJP’s Facebook page.
India Today reported Abhro saying, “I woke up a little late this morning and saw over 100 missed calls. Even before I could check what happened, my friend, Arvind, told me that the BJP IT cell has used my picture in place of Manik Moitro who had allegedly died in Sitalkuchi.”
“I was shocked as I am 1300 kms away and the kind of misinformation can be quite damaging,” said Abhro.
As an action towards the video claiming him to be dead, a shocked Abhro Banerjee is now planning of a legal process.
