A collage of five pictures is going viral on the internet with users claiming that it was taken after the Enforcement Directorate (ED) raided 24 locations in the alleged Railways land-for-jobs scam.
What are users claiming?: People on social media have targeted former Bihar Chief Minister Lalu Prasad Yadav, who is named as one of the accused in the scam, while sharing the collage.
An archive of the post can be seen here.
(Source: Facebook/Screenshot)
Unrelated: Image 1
On isolating the first image and performing a reverse image on it, we found a news report published on 11 September 2022 on Hindustan Times.
It mentioned that the ED recovered around Rs 18 crore cash after it conducted raids on six locations in Kolkata in connection with a money-laundering case related to mobile gaming application.
Among those who were raided was Nesar Ahmed Khan, a businessman.
The report was published in September 2022.
(Source: Hindustan Times/Screenshot)
Unrelated: Images 2 and 5
A reverse image search on the second image led us to a tweet posted on ED's official handle.
It was posted on 6 March and its caption mentioned that 15 locations in Nagpur and Mumbai were searched in connection with an investment fraud.
The first two pictures of the tweet were similar to the second and fifth image in the viral collage.
On comparing the images, we found that they are from the same incident.
(Swipe right to view all comparisons.)
A comparison between both the images clearly highlights the similarities.
(Source: ED/Twitter/Altered by The Quint)
Image 3 and 4
We performed a reverse image search on the third image and found the same pictures uploaded on a tweet posted by ANI - a news agency.
It was uploaded on 11 March and it mentioned that the pictures are from the ED searches at 24 locations related to the Railways land-for-jobs scam.
A comparison clearly highlights the similarities between the images and proves that they are from the same incident.
On comparing the images, we found they are from the same incident.
(Source: ANI/Twitter/Altered by The Quint)
ED raids in the alleged scam: According to Enforcement Directorate's Twitter handle, it raided 24 locations at multiple locations in the alleged land-for-jobs scam.
It further said that the searches has "resulted in detection of Proceeds of Crime amounting to Rs 600 Crore approximately at this point of time."
Conclusion: While two pictures are related to the recent ED raids in connection with the alleged land-for-jobs scam, three of them are unrelated.
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