The Congress party on Sunday shared a Tribune news report which alleged a sensational conspiracy theory involving absconding diamond merchant Nirav Modi and the Income Tax department.
As per the tweet put out by the Congress party’s official twitter handle, it alleged that “in a convenient turn of events papers relating to Nirav Modi, had been burnt during the fire at the tax agency’s offices in Mumbai. To take things further, the party then alleged how Nirav Modi was photographed with PM Modi before “pulling off” the banking fraud:
In a rather convenient turn of events, a fire burned papers that the Income Tax Department had on Nirav Modi , the man who was photographed with PM Modi before he went on the run after pulling off the largest banking fraud in India. https://t.co/ps72fm9AFt
— Congress (@INCIndia) June 3, 2018
Incidentally the party wasn’t alone in this regard and this theory was peddled by other media outlets and AAP supporter cum fake news enthusiast Dhruv Rathee.
About 45 minutes after Congress’ tweet, and after noticing the media reports the Income Tax department decided to swing into action and called the above allegations as “false and misdirected”:
News reports appearing in some sections of media alleging that records/documents relating to investigation of Nirav Modi/Mehul Choksi have been destroyed in the Scindia House fire in ITOffice,Mumbai are completely false & misdirected @PMOIndia @FinMinIndia @arunjaitley @adhia03
— Income Tax India (@IncomeTaxIndia) June 3, 2018
The IT department further explained that documents relating to the investigation into Nirav Modi and Mehul Choksi had been previously transferred to other buildings. Incidentally following the debunk, Tribune – the source of Congress’ allegation, has pulled down its report:
Despite the fact that the allegations have been refuted by the IT department, it did not stop actor Richa Chadha continued peddling this conspiracy, which was also endorsed by Javed Akhtar:
Dear Richa , it is called FRIENDLY FIRE !!!
— Javed Akhtar (@Javedakhtarjadu) June 4, 2018
It remains to be seen whether the IT department would take some legal action against those who spread the allegation which it describes as false and misdirected.
