CLAIM
A viral message on Twitter, shared by several veteran journalists, claimed that NIA judge Ravindra Reddy, who acquitted Swami Aseemanand in the Mecca Masjid blasts case, joined the BJP.
This message was also shared on Twitter by journalists like Nidhi Razdan, Saurav Datta and Swati Chaturvedi.
The message appears to have been first shared by a facebook page by the name 'Mangalore Voice', which then made its way to Twitter. At the time of writing this article, the post had close to 1.2k shares.
In the photo along with the claim, BJP President Amit Shah can be seen along with another man, presumably Judge Reddy, who is being inducted into the party.
TRUE OR FALSE?
Well, the man in the photo is not NIA judge Ravindra Reddy.
A reverse image search led us to several results which showed that the man in question was not Ravindra Redddy, but senior Congress leader Ram Dayal Ulke.
Ulke, a tribal leader from north Chhattisgarh, had joined the BJP in October 2018. This was covered by several media organisations like NDTV, The Wire, Scroll.in and The New Indian Express.
WHERE DID THIS CLAIM ORIGINATE FROM?
Reddy had, on 16 April 2018, resigned from his post as an NIA judge, only hours after delivering his verdict in the Mecca Masjid blasts case. Reddy had cited “personal reasons” for his resignation, and had also applied for leave, reported The Hindu. However, three days later, he resumed work at the court, the report added.
Later that year, in October, Reddy joined the Telangana Jana Samiti, which was part of the alliance led by Congress in the state for the state Assembly elections, reported NDTV.
The NDTV report had added: “Mr Reddy had expressed keenness to join the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), describing it as a "patriotic party", and banners welcoming him into the party were put up at the state BJP headquarters here, but it did not materialise.”
This is possibly where the claim could have originated from.
JOURNALISTS TAKE DOWN MISLEADING TWEET
After being pointed out by fellow journalist Rupa Subramanya, the journalists took down their original tweet, thanking Subramnya for flagging off the correct information.
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