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| - Fact Check: Did the judge who acquit Swami Aseemanand in Mecca Masjid blast case join BJP?
A photo is doing the rounds on social media with the claim that former NIA judge Ravindra Reddy, who acquitted Swami Aseemanand in the Mecca Masjid blast case, has joined BJP. India Today TV's Anti-Fake News War Room has found that it is fake.
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India Today Fact Check
Claim is false. Man in the photo is former Congress leader Ramdayal Uikey who joined BJP last year.
Did NIA judge Ravinder Reddy who acquit Swami Aseemanand in the Mecca Masjid blast case join BJP?
A Facebook page named 'Mangalore Voice' has shared a photo of a person wearing a saffron scarf with BJP president Amit Shah and former Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Raman Singh. The caption reads, "Meet the National Investigation Agency (NIA) judge Ravindra Reddy joining BJP who acquitted RSS leader Swamy Aseemanand in Mecca Masjid bomb blast (sic)".
India Today TV's Anti-Fake News War Room (AFWA) has found the claim to be untrue.
Swami Aseemanand, a Hindu religious leader, was accused in the Ajmer Dargah, Mecca Masjid and Samjhauta Express blast cases. NIA judge Ravindra Reddy had acquitted him in the Mecca Masjid blast case last year. More recently, another NIA court acquitted Aseemanand in the Samjhauta Express blast case as well.
Now, a photo is doing the rounds on social media claiming that Reddy has joined the BJP in presence of Amit Shah and Raman Singh. The photo, shared by a Facebook page called 'Mangalore Voice', has been shared more than 1,200 times. The page has a following of more than 4 lakh.
AFWA has found that the photo is misleading. A simple reverse search helped us find the truth behind the photo.
The man seen in the photo with Amit Shah and Raman Singh is a former Congress leader from Chhattisgarh, Ramdayal Uikey, who joined the BJP last year.
In April 2018, NIA judge Ravinder Reddy had acquitted all five accused, including Aseemanand, in the Mecca Masjid blast case. Hours after this verdict, Reddy resigned from his post which was later rejected by the high court.
Last year, there were speculations that Reddy was keen to join the BJP, but he didn't do so.
In fact, in October last year, he joined the Telangana Jana Samithi (TJS), an ally of the Congress in Telangana.
There have been no media reports till now about Reddy joining BJP. We tried to contact TJS, but haven't received any response till the time of filing this report.
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