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| - Fact Check: Did PM Modi send his chopper to ferry Dera chief Ram Rahim?
A collage of two pictures has been doing the rounds on social media claiming that PM Modi sent his helicopter to ferry rape convict Dera Sacha Sauda chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim. India Today's Anti Fake News War Room (AFWA) has found this claim to be misleading.
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India Today Fact Check
The Haryana government used the chopper to ferry Ram Rahim after his conviction due to widespread violence in Panchkula.
A collage of two pictures has been doing the rounds on social media claiming that PM Modi sent his helicopter to ferry rape convict Dera Sacha Sauda chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim.
Facebook page Support NDTV posted the collage of two pictures, one showing PM Modi coming out of a chopper and the other of Ram Rahim inside a chopper. Both choppers bear the same number AW 139’, encircled in the collage.
The Facebook post claimed, When the country’s PM sends his own chopper to ferry a rapist, Beti Bachao is turned into a joke. At the time of filing this story, the post was shared by more than 86,000 users.
The archived version of the post can be seen here.
India Today’s Anti Fake News War Room (AFWA) has found this claim to be misleading. PM Modi never sent any chopper to carry Ram Rahim.
Old post, but still viral
The post was originally put up on Facebook page Support NDTV on April 28 last year, but users are still sharing it.
Several other Facebook pages such as I Support Ravish Kumar NDTV, Congress World and Ek Kadam Hindu Rashtra ki Aur also shared the same post last year.
The truth
Several media reports had earlier said that the chopper which ferried Ram Rahim to Rohtak jail from Panchkula after his conviction in 2017 was taken on lease by the Haryana government from a private company.
PM Modi had used the same chopper model AW 139’ of AgustaWestland during the 2014 election campaign. The number AW 139’ mentioned on both choppers is the model number and not the registration number.
Fact check: Why was Ram Rahim in an AW 139’ chopper?
In August 25, 2017, when Ram Rahim was convicted of rape by a Panchkula court, violence erupted in the town.
According to several news reports published during that time, the Godman was flown away by the state government from Panchkula to Sunaria district jail on the outskirts of Rohtak in a chopper.
The photo of him sitting inside the chopper created controversy as people accused the Manohar Lal Khattar government of providing VIP treatment to a convict.
The news reports can be read here and here.
According to a report published in Dainik Bhaskar in 2017, Ram Nivas , the then additional chief secretary of Haryana government, confirmed that the helicopter AW 139, which ferried Ram Rahim was hired from a private company on behalf of the state government.
According to him, this decision was taken because of the volatile situation on the ground in Rohtak following Ram Rahim’s conviction.
Did Modi use AW 139 helicopter?
The AW 139 helicopter has been used widely in India for transporting VIPs. In 2014, Modi used the chopper for election campaigning.
An article published in The Times of India on April 22, 2014, confirmed that Modi used one aircraft, EMB-135BJ, and two helicopters, AW 139 and Bell 412, to travel to various places across the country during the election campaign.
As per news website OneIndia the viral picture of Modi coming out from the chopper was from a campaign rally in Gurgaon.
Conclusion
The viral claim of Modi sending a chopper to ferry Ram Rahim is misleading. The Haryana government had sent the chopper to carry the Dera chief after his conviction due to widespread violence in Panchkula.
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