Fake News Trail: Why Did Paresh Rawal Troll Arundhati Roy?

Veteran actor Paresh Rawal quoted an interview of Arundhati Roy that she DID NOT give to an Indian news portal.

Arundhati Roy was trolled for something she never said. (Image: Lijumol Joseph/The Quint)

Fifteen news organizations in three countries across two continents – that’s the fake news trail that led to Paresh Rawal’s call for violence against Arundhati Roy.

The veteran actor and BJP MP from Gujarat quoted an interview that the author DID NOT give to an Indian news portal and suggested that she be tied to the Army jeep instead of the stone pelter in Kashmir.

(Image: Lijumol Joseph/The Quint)

Speaking to The Wire, Roy said she had not been to Srinagar recently or made any statements on Kashmir recently, except for a piece for an Indian news magazine.

The Wire also quoted Kashmiri journalists who clarified that “Kashmir Media Service’ that first reported the fake interview, “is not a media organisation, but the propaganda arm of a Kashmiri militant organisation in Pakistan occupied Kashmir. It maintains a website, but the news about Arundhati Roy is not archived there.”

Here’s a geographical trail of how the fake news travelled.