A picture of a Mumbai-based singer, Arpita Mukherjee, was used by several media outlets, misidentifying her as Trinamool Congress (TMC) leader Partha Chatterjee's close aide, Arpita Mukherjee. The residence of Chatterjee, who is presently a minister in the West Bengal government, was raided by Enforcement Directorate (ED) recently.
News channels, namely Times Now Navbharat, ABP News, and News 18 Bangla carried the singer's picture attributing her as the actor linked to Chatterjee and West Bengal's Staff Selection Commission (SSC) scam.
This comes amid Chatterjee and Mukherjee getting arrested by the ED on 23 July in connection with the alleged irregularities in the recruitment of teachers, clerks, and staff in state-run schools.
NEWS OUTLETS MISIDENTIFY ARPITA MUKHERJEE
Times Now Navbharat's bulletin carried a picture of the singer Arpita Mukherjee, instead of Chatterjee's close aide Arpita Mukherjee.
The singer took to Facebook to address this issue and posted a video of the bulletin.
She also demanded an apology from the channel. Subsequently, Times Now Navbharat responded to Mukherjee by clarifying that due to technical errors, a wrong picture was aired.
News18 Bangla and ABP NEWS also posted videos on their YouTube channels about Arpita Mukherjee's arrest and used a wrong picture in the thumbnail, misidentifying Mukherjee.
(Note: Swipe to see the screenshot)
The thumbnail of the videos carried the wrong photo of Arpita Mukherjee.
(Source: News18 Bangla and ABP NEWS/ Screenshot)
THE IMAGE SHOWS ARPITA MUKHERJEE, THE SINGER
We conducted a reverse image search of the woman's photo in the thumbnail of the news videos. This led us to an IMDb page which identified the woman as Arpita Mukherjee, a singer.
The pictures of the singer.
(Source: IMDb/Screenshot)
Mukherjee also uploaded a video on Instagram to clarify that her image was being wrongly used by some news channel who misidentified her as Arpita Mukherjee from Kolkata.
"Some media houses used my pictures to refer to Arpita Mukherjee who has recently been arrested, which created confusion. I request the media houses to rectify this mistake as it is affecting my professional and personal life,“ Mukherjee said.
We also compared the two woman, who share the same name with each other and found no similarities between them.
Comparison between the singer and the one involved in the controversy.
(Source: The Quint)
WHY WAS ARPITA MUKHERJEE ARRESTED?
West Bengal Industry Minister and senior TMC leader Partha Chatterjee was arrested by the ED on 23 July, over an alleged scam related to the recruitment of teachers in the state.
This comes after Rs 20 crore cash was seized from the residence of Chatterjee's aide Arpita Mukherjee.
The special Central Bureau of Investigation court (Bankshall court) has remanded the duo to 10 days of custody.
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