2017 photo shared as recent picture of IAS officer Pooja Singhal with Amit Shah before the ED raids - FACTLY
Sai Krishna Muthyanolla
May 9, 2022
A photo is being shared on social media claiming it as IAS officer Pooja Singhal’s recent picture with Amit Shah just days before the Enforcement Directorate raided multiple places linked to her.  According to reports, on 06 May 2022, the Enforcement Directorate seized a total of Rs. 19.31 crores from various places linked to Pooja Singhal in connection with a money laundering case in Ranchi. Let’s verify the claim made in the post.
Claim: IAS officer Pooja Singhal’s recent picture when she met Amit Shah just days before she was caught in ED raids.
Fact: The photo shared in the post was taken in 2017, during the ‘Garib Kalyan Mela’ organised on the eve of the completion of 100 days of Raghubar Das Government in Ranchi, Jharkhand. The photo shared in the post is old and has nothing to do with the recent Enforcement Directorate raids on Jharkhand IAS officer Pooja Singhal. Hence, the claim made in the post is MISLEADING.
When we searched for this photo using relevant keywords, we found that Bollywood film director Avinash Das too had tweeted this photo with a similar description on 08 May 2022. But a user replied to the tweet and mentioned that the photo was taken in 2017, during an event held in Ranchi, Jharkhand. This Twitter user had also shared a picture published on the ‘Getty Images’ in 2017, in which both Amit Shah and Pooja Singhal were seen in the same clothes as seen in the posted photo.
On searching for more details of the photo using relevant keywords, we found the same image on the ‘Getty Images’ website. The description of the photo states, “BJP President Amit Shah, Chief Minister Raghubar Das and Union Minister Jayant Sinha during the “Garib Kalyan Mela” rally organised on the eve of completion of 100 days of Raghubar Das government in state at Harmu ground, on September 16, 2017 in Ranchi”.
A few videos from the 2017 ‘Garib Kalyan Mela’ event held in Ranchi can be seen here and here. From all these pieces of evidence, it can be concluded that the photo shared in the post is old and has nothing to do with the recent Enforcement Directorate raids on Jharkhand IAS officer Pooja Singhal.
To sum it up, an old photo taken in 2017 is shared as a recent picture of IAS officer Pooja Singhal with Amit Shah before the ED raids.