Morphed Image Shared to Falsely Claim Amit Shah Met AIMIM’s Owaisi
Owaisi had shared an image of his meeting for the construction of bridges in 2018 but Shah can’t be seen in them.
Video Editor: Mohd Irshad Alam
A morphed photo of Union Home Minister Amit Shah and All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) President Asaduddin Owaisi is being shared to strengthen the oft-repeated theory that Owaisi is BJP’s “B team”. This comes amid the upcoming Assembly elections in the states of West Bengal, Assam, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, and Puducherry.
CLAIM
Twitter user Samiullah Kinnu Khan shared the image with the text: “क्या नज़ाकत अजी क्या नज़ाकत”
Several social media users shared the image on Twitter and Facebook with some claiming that it shows a “strategic meeting between BJP and BJP’s Team #B”.
According to his Twitter bio, Mohd Zoha Khan identifies himself as “#RGAICC Western UP Social Media Coordinator and Minority Congress Media Department.[sic.]”
WHAT WE FOUND OUT
We found an article by The News Minute published in 2018 in which Asaduddin Owaisi could be seen sitting on the same-coloured sofa and in an identical attire as in the viral photo.
As per the article, Owaisi had then urged the government of Telangana to construct bridges across River Musi in order to aid street vendors.
On reverse searching this photo, we came across a tweet that included a set of photos of Owaisi from the said meeting.
On 28 February 2018, the AIMIM president had shared the images of his meeting for the construction of new bridges on Facebook. It is pertinent to note that none of the images feature Home Minister Amit Shah.
On comparing the viral image with the one uploaded in 2018, we found that the former has been morphed.
WHERE IS AMIT SHAH’S IMAGE FROM?
Replying to one of the viral tweets, a user suggested that Amit Shah’s photo has been taken from his meeting with Punjab Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh.
We then searched on Google with relevant keywords and came across an article by The Tribune that had carried the photo of Amit Shah and Amarinder Singh and was attributed to PIB/PTI.
One must note that the viral photo is a horizontally flipped version of the original Amit Shah image.
A comparison between the original image, horizontally flipped one, and the viral photo can be seen below.
Evidently, a morphed image was shared by several social media users to show Home Minister Amit Shah and AIMIM President Asaduddin Owaisi in one frame.
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