A social media post with a photograph of ₹2,000 notes stacked in the corner while police personnel address the media has been widely shared with the claim that this money was recovered was from a BJP leader’s residence in West Bengal. Through this article, let’s fact-check the claim made in the post.
Claim: Photograph of money recovered from BJP leader’s house in West Bengal.
Fact: The photograph in the post is neither related to any BJP leader nor is it from West Bengal. It is from Khammam, Telangana. The photograph shows the Telangana police who had nabbed a gang involved in the circulation of fake ₹ 2,000 notes on 02 November 2019. Hence the claim made in the post is FALSE.
Reverse Image Search of the photograph led us to a 2019 news article by the Financial Express. As per the article, Telangana Police busted an inter-state gang involved in the circulation of fake ₹ 2,000 notes. The incident took place in Vemsoor Mandal of Khammam district. Police arrested five persons for cheating the public in the guise of exchanging ₹2,000 denomination currency notes and offering 20 percent commission. This article was reported on 02 November 2019.
The incident was also reported by ANI and Telangana Today. Telangana police arrested four members of a family and some others while seizing 320 bundles of fake ₹ 2000 currency notes from Khammam. Commissioner of Police (CP) Tafseer Iqubal told the media that the racket was being operated with Sathupalli town (in Telangana) as its centre. Also, no recent news reports of cash being seized from BJP leader’s house in West Bengal were found. . Hence, the claim that BJP leader from West Bengal was involved in this incident is false.
To sum it up, old photograph from Telangana is being passed off as cash seized from Bengal BJP leader’s residence.
