CLAIM
A WhatsApp forward claiming that money to the effect of Rs 20,000 crore was found in Bharatiya Janata Party MLA Sudhir Gadgil’s car has gone viral on social media.
The forward states: “मोदीजी को बधाई हो
भाजपा के विधायक सुधीर गाडगीळ की कार से 20 हज़ार करोड़ की नयी करेंसी पकड़ी गयी है। ये खबर आग की तरह फैला दो क्यूंकि अपने भारत की मीडिया में ये दिखने की औकात नहीं है।”
(Translated: Congratulations Modi ji. Rs 20,000 crore has been seized from BJP MLA Sudhir Gadgil’s car. Spread this news like wildfire because Indian media doesn’t have the guts to air this.)
TRUE OR FALSE?
The images that are used in the WhatsApp forward are from two different instances which directly have nothing to do with Sudhir Gadgil.
The image showing the police officer with the car which has the money is actually from an incident that occurred in 2016 when a vehicle carrying Rs 6 crore was intercepted in Maharashtra’s Osmanabad.
On the other hand, the image claiming to show the 20,000 crores was actually from an I-T raid that seized Rs 11 crore in cash from the Delhi residence of National Stock Exchange broker Sanjay Gupta, reported The Times of India.
WHAT WE FOUND OUT
On conducting reverse image searches for both the images, we were led to two different stories which were based on incidents that occurred in 2016 and 2017, respectively.
The first image, which shows the police with the seized cash and a car, is from 15 November 2016, when the police intercepted the said car, which was carrying money belonging to the Sangli Urban Bank. According to a ABP News report, Sangli Urban Bank belongs to Ganesh Gadgil, who is Sudhir Gadgil’s brother.
But, the money that was seized was only being taken to the bank’s headquarters in Sangli and therefore has no link to the Rs 20,000 crore claim.
Whereas for the other image, on conducting a reverse image search, we were eventually led to a report on an income tax raid which was conducted in 2017. The Times of India had reported on this very raid where money was seized from the Delhi residence of the NSE broker and the same image was used as well.
This categorically proves the falsehood of the WhatsApp forward doing the rounds.
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