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| - Fact Check: Viral image of petrol bill asking not to vote for PM Modi is fake
An image of a petrol bill purportedly by an 'HPL' dealer named Sai Balaji Petroleum in Mumbai's Vikhroli is viral on social media. The text along with the image asks readers to not vote for Prime Minister Narendra Modi the next time if they want reduced petrol prices.
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India Today Fact Check
The viral petrol bill is fake. The anti-Modi text is edited into a sample bill available online. Also, there is no such fuel station with the given name in Vikhroli.
An image of a petrol bill purportedly by an 'HPL' dealer named Sai Balaji Petroleum in Mumbai’s Vikhroli is viral on social media. The text along with the image asks readers to not vote for Prime Minister Narendra Modi the next time if they want reduced petrol prices.
The retail price of petrol and diesel has been skyrocketing for the last several days in the country. This has led to demonstrations against the Modi government in several parts of the country by opposition parties.
The text along with one of these viral images reads “If you want to reduce the petrol price don’t vote for Modi again”.
India Today Anti Fake News War Room (AFWA) has found that the fuel bill in circulation is fake. Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Limited (HPCL) - India's public sector oil and gas company - also clarified on their official Twitter handle that the bill is not real and does not follow their bill format.
The archived versions of similar posts can be seen here, here, and here.
AFWA probe
While closely observing the bill, we found that the date mentioned on the bill is of the year 2018. Apart from several discrepancies in the font size and style of the bill, according to the bill, Sai Balaji Petroleum is an “HPL” dealer. However, there is no such petroleum company in India. The abbreviation of Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Limited is HPCL and not HPL.
We also searched for fuel stations by the name of Sai Balaji Petroleum in Mumbai’s Vikhroli area. However, we couldn’t find any petrol pump by that name.
Also, in 2018, when a similar bill went viral, HPCL through its official Twitter handle clarified that there is no such HPCL pump in Vikhroli. “There is no retail outlet of HPCL in Vikhroli or elsewhere in Mumbai,” the Maharashtra-based petroleum corporation had tweeted.
We also found another tweet by HPCL on February 23, 2021, where it clarifies that the format of the viral bill in question does not match with the format of the bill followed by the company’s dealers. It also stated that the company’s name has been wrongly mentioned as HPL in it.
The tweet reads, "Bill in question is a fake bill which has nothing to do with HPCL. The fake bill has Company name given as "HPL" and has been floating in digital medium since long, with malafide intentions. Real bill format by HPCL is attached for reference.”
The tweet has also given a comparison between the viral bill and an original bill of HPCL.
Source of the viral bill in question
In 2018, fact-checking website SMHoaxslayer found that the bill was taken from a set of sample images on the website of Goldmine Electrosystems Pvt Ltd, a Maharashtra-based manufacturer and seller of handheld billing machines.
AFWA compared the viral bill with a similar bill available on Goldmine’s website.
Including the vehicle number, we found multiple similarities between the viral bill and the sample bill available online.
We also looked for details of the vehicle number MH04BZ9680, mentioned in the bill using the Parivahan Seva website of the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways. Parivahan Seva makes use of vehicle registration numbers to find vehicle owners. However, no details were found against this number on the website.
Hence, it is clear that the bill in question is fake and the text against voting for PM Modi is edited into a sample bill available online.
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You can also send us an email at factcheck@intoday.com
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