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| - Fact Check: Congress IT cell head Divya Spandana slams BJP over old news
India Today Anti Fake News War Room (AFWA) has found that Spandana's post is misleading. The news she shared from her Twitter handle is around two years old.
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India Today Fact Check
This is old news. The Madhya Pradesh Anti-Terrorism Squad had arrested Saxena along with 10 others on February 9, 2017. The BJP had denied any association with Saxena.
With the Lok Sabha election round the corner, social media has turned into a fertile breeding ground for fake news and misinformation. Political leaders have become the flavour of the season. The latest to create a sort of buzz on Twitter is Congress IT cell head Divya Spandana. In her tweet, Spandana claimed that BJP IT cell man Dhruv Saxena has been arrested for helping Pakistan’s intelligence agency ISI.
Anti National BJP!! BJP IT Cell Man Dhruv Saxena Arrested Along With 10 Others For Helping ISI Spy On Army https://t.co/ZhNs2DRIUu Divya Spandana/Ramya (@divyaspandana) March 5, 2019
India Today Anti Fake News War Room (AFWA) has found that Spandana’s post is misleading. The news she shared from her Twitter handle is around two years old.
The archived version of her tweet can be seen here.
Spandana, in her tweet, has referred to an article carried by news portal YouthKiawaaz.com recently. She tweeted the article with the caption: Anti National BJP!! BJP IT cell man Dhruv Saxena arrested along with 10 others for helping ISI spy on army. YouthKiawaaz.com is an open platform where anyone can post a story.
The post was retweeted more than 3,300 times at the time of filing this story. Believing it to be true, a majority of netizens started slamming the BJP.
The official Twitter handle of Youth Congress, AICC national media panelist Shama Mohamed, and Srinivas B V, who according to his Twitter account is national vice-president IYC, have also tweeted the news bashing the BJP.
Facebook users Planet Sarcasm and Peter Fernandes have also made the same claim on their posts.
We looked for Dhruv Saxena on the Internet and found a few news articles on this incident. On February 9, 2017, the Madhya Pradesh Anti-Terrorism Squad had arrested 11 alleged ISI operatives, including Saxena. Many prominent media houses, including India Today, covered the news.
At that time, the Congress alleged that Saxena was the district coordinator of the BJP’s IT cell in Madhya Pradesh. YouthKiawaaz.com had shared an Alt News article of 2016 which had reported about the incident extensively. However, after his arrest, the BJP had denied any association with Saxena.
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