Edited news clip about BJP leader's connection with Maoists is being shared - FACTLY
Sai Krishna Muthyanolla
April 7, 2021
In view of the recent attack by Maoists in Chhattisgarh’s Bijapur district in which at least 22 security personnel lost their lives, a post accompanying an image of a Hindi newspaper clipping is being shared widely. The clip states that a BJP leader was arrested for connection with the Naxals linking the arrest to the recent incident. Through this article let’s fact-check the claim made in the post.
Claim: Image of a newspaper clipping that mentions the arrest of a BJP leader for links with the Naxals.
Fact: Although the news about the BJP leader’s arrest for connection with Naxal’s is true, it happened back in June 2020. This news is digitally added to a news clip of Navabharat dated 05 April 2021, which reported the recent deadly attack by Maoists in Chhattisgarh’s Bijapur. The arrest of BJP leader has nothing to do with the recent Chhattisgarh incident. Hence the claim made in the post is FALSE.
Since the news clipping is attributed to Navabharat news network, search on Navabharat website for the purported news clip yielded a news clipping dated 05 April 2021 which is similar to the clipping in the post. Except for the news about the BJP leader’s arrest for connection with Naxals part, the rest of the layout is similar in both the clippings.
Further, taking a cue from the news clipping in the post regarding the BJP leader’s arrest, Google search with relevant keywords yielded multiple June 2020 news articles about the same BJP leader named ‘Jagat Pujari’s’ arrest for supplying goods to Naxals in Dantewada. These articles can be read here, here, and here. With this, we can infer that the news of BJP leader’s arrest for connection with Naxals is old and it is digitally added to the Navabharat news clip which reported the recent deadly attack of Maoists in Chhattisgarh. It is noteworthy to mention that earlier there have been instances of even Congress leaders getting arrested for links with Naxals.
On further investigation, it was found that Jagat Pujari (BJP leader) was supplying goods to naxals since last 10 yrs. He used to meet them regularly&supplied goods to them with the help of villagers. Jagat Pujari&a naxal arrested: Abhishek Pallav,SP Dantewada.#Chhattisgarh (2/2) pic.twitter.com/QwD6egJs79
To sum it up, a digitally edited news clip about BJP leader’s links with Naxals is being shared in light of the recent attack in Chhattisgarh.