Several posts of social media have falsely claimed that Indian Army’s Lt Gen Tarnjit Singh has been arrested on charges of sedition. However, the Indian Army denied these rumours in a statement, calling it “a state sponsored malicious social media disinformation campaign,” run by Pakistan.
CLAIM
Social media users shared an image of the Lt General with the claim, “Indian Army’s Sikh General Lt.Gen. Tarn Jait Singh has been arrested on charges of sedition against the Modi government. This is a sign of the beginning of sabotage in the Indian Army.”
The same claim was also shared in Urdu.
The Quint also received a query on its WhatsApp helpline.
WHAT WE FOUND OUT
The Ministry of Defence released a statement on 1 October denying the rumours on social media.
The statement accuses Pakistan of running “a state sponsored malicious social media disinformation campaign has been run by Pakistan against the Indian Army and, in particular, against Lt Gen Taranjit Singh, a senior officer posted in the Department of Military Affairs (DMA).”
“Having failed consistently to incite religion-based disaffection within the country, Pakistan, in a desperate attempt, is now trying to create a divide within the Indian Army.”
The Indian Army also called out the fake news on Twitter.
A reverse image search also led us to news agency ANI’s tweet from October 2019, carrying the same image as the viral claim.
The tweet stated that Lieutenant General Taranjeet Singh has taken over as the Deputy Chief of Integrated Defence Staff (Operations).
ANI had also tweeted a recent image of Lt Gen Singh on 1 October, with his remarks on the joint functioning within the Army.
Evidently, social media users have falsely claimed that Lt Gen Taranjit Singh was arrested for sedition charges.
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