A photo of Home Minister Amit Shah and Jharkhand cadre IAS officer Pooja Singhal is being shared after properties linked to the latter were raided by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in connection with a money laundering case.
The claim along with the photo suggests that the duo had met a couple of days ago before the raid in which the ED has reportedly seized nearly Rs 18 crore in cash from the house of a chartered accountant, who is allegedly linked to Singhal.
The case pertains to alleged diversion of Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) funds.
However, the photo going viral dates back to 2017 when Shah met Singhal at an event named 'Garib Kalyan Mela' in Ranchi, Jharkhand.
CLAIM
The caption shared along the viral photo says, "घर से करोड़ों का कैश पकड़ाने से थोड़े दिनों पहले पूजा सिंघल की एक तस्वीर।"
[Translation: A picture of Pooja Singhal, a few days before crores of cash was seized from her house.]
Bollywood director Avinash Das and farmer's activitst Himmat Singh Gurjar also shared the same viral claim on their official Twitter handles.
Archived version of the post can be seen here.
(Source- Facebook/Screenshot)
WHAT WE FOUND OUT
On conducting a reverse image search of the photo on Google Images, we came across a tweet posted on 8 May 2022.
The user stated that the photo is from an event called 'Garib Kalyan Mela' from 2017, which took place in Ranchi, Jharkhand.
The same tweet also carried a screenshot from a stock image website 'Getty Images' of the same event, where Shah and Singhal can be seen on the stage wearing the same clothes.
The user tweeted a screenshot from Getty Images to point out that old image is being shared.
(Source - Twitter/Screenshot)
Taking a cue from here, we did a keyword search on Getty Images and found pictures from the event.
The image descriptions on the website stated that on 16 September 2017, then BJP President Amit Shah attended the 'Garib Kalyan Mela' Rally in Ranchi.
One image on the website showed both – Singhal and Shah – in the same frame.
The photo shows IAS Pooja Singhal and Amit Shah in the same frame.
(Source- Altered by The Quint)
On conducting a search with the same keywords as before, we also came across a YouTube live stream video posted by Bharatiya Janta Party on 16 Spetember 2017.
Here, too, Singhal can be seen in the same yellow saree as in the viral image.
IAS Pooja Singhal is seen in the video uploaded by BJP.
(Source- Altered by The Quint)
Clearly, an old image from 2017 is being shared to falsely claim that Amit Shah met IAS Pooja Singhal a few days before the ED raid.
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