West Bengal Violence: Dead man in BJP video is alive

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) circulated a video with a photograph of Manik Moitra, who the BJP claimed had been killed by the All India Trinamool Congress (TMC) in the post-election violence.

The video has been widely circulated by the BJP followers, including BJP leader Rahul Sinha. Moitra, according to the video, was a resident of Sitalkuchi of West Bengal.

As luck would have it for the BJP, the photograph circulated as that of Manik Moitra, was in fact of Abhro Banerjee, an India Today journalist, who is very much alive. When Abhro Banerjee learnt that his photograph was being circulated as that of Manik Moitra, he tweeted today, “I am Abhro Banerjee, living and hale and hearty and around 1,300 km away from Sitalkuchi. BJP IT Cell is now claiming I am Manik Moitra and died in Sitalkuchi. Please don’t believe these fake posts and please don’t worry. I repeat: I am (still) alive.”  

This exposes the BJP in spreading fake news in order to malign Mamata Banerjee, following the party’s defeat in West Bengal at the hands of Mamata Banerjee and TMC.

The BJP had also claimed that a 20-year-old girl was raped and murdered in West Bengal by the “Rohingya and Bangladeshi jihadis for supporting BJP.” This information was widely circulated by the BJP after the its defeat in the West Bengal elections.

India Today has now exposed that the girl’s family has stated that the crime against the girl had nothing to do with the elections. Though it is true that she was raped and murdered, it was not political and that those committing the crime belong to the same community as the girl, India Today Anti Fake News War Room claimed quoting the girl’s family and the police.