The photo of hoarding in the name of Dainik Bhaskar is being widely shared through a post on social media. In the photo, it is written ‘Neither Mahant of the Monastery, nor fake saint. Now, only the truth shall prevail, the news in UP will not be suppressed, nor will it stop“. Let us fact-check the claim made in the post.
Claim: Photo of Dainik Bhaskar’s hoarding, criticising BJP.
Fact: This photo was morphed from an image taken from an article published on 04 January 2020. There are no recent news articles of Dainik Bhaskar’s hoarding criticising the BJP. This photo went viral in the light of searches conducted by the IT Department at the offices of Dainik Bhaskar group. Hence, the claim made in the post is FALSE.
When we searched for news articles regarding Dainik Bhaskar’s hoarding criticizing the BJP or any of its leaders, we could not find any. Such Photos of hoardings could not be seen on Dainik Bhaskar’s website, or its Facebook and Twitter account. When the photo is observed closely, one can see a watermark on the bottom left corner. It is read in English as, ‘Yogi Jhootha Hai’. A Facebook account with the very same name ‘Yogi Jhootha Hai’ was found with the same image, which was published on 22 July 2021. However, the post in a satirical tone said “The ‘oppressive government’ tried to suppress the voice of ‘Dainik Bhaskar’, this is what Dainik Bhaskar would want to do.”
When a reverse image search is done on the photo, a similar photo with an identical background was found in an article published by News Nation. The article titled, “Desh Mange Narendra Modi, Dilli Mange Kejriwal’: ‘BJP Member’ puts up hoarding in Delhi” was published on 04 January 2020. This hoarding came up in West Delhi’s Paschim Vihar days before the Delhi Assembly polls in 2020. Upon close observation, one can observe that the image in the article and the photo have an identical background; and that the photo was clearly morphed from this image.
On 22 July 2021, the Income tax department conducted searches at the offices of the Dainik Bhaskar Group across the country. “In a statement, Dainik Bhaskar said the Income Tax searches were the result of its aggressive and fearless journalism on mismanagement during the second COVID-19 wave – it had done a series of stories on deaths during the second wave, and of bodies being dumped along the Ganga,” according to the article.
Following the searches, the Income Tax Department in a statement said, “Cyclical trading and transfer of funds among group companies engaged in
unrelated businesses to the tune of Rs. 2200 crore has been found. The enquiries have confirmed that these have been fictitious transactions without any actual movement or delivery of goods. The tax effect and violation of other laws is being examined”.
To sum it up, a morphed photo is being shared as a Dainik Bhaskar’s hoarding criticizing the BJP government.
