A BJP supporter and its star campaigner, Nibhas Sarkar, whose photographs dressed as Lord Hanuman went viral during BJP’s 2019 Lok Sabha campaign in Bengal’s Ranaghat in Nadia district had committed suicide over a family dispute on Thursday afternoon. The news of his unfortunate death was misconstrued by various social media users who rumoured that Nibhas committed suicide over the NRC issue.
A CPIM Politburo member, Md Salim representing Raiganj constituency in West Bengal, without feeling the need to verify the truth, today took to Twitter to peddle the same fake news about Nibhas’ death.
Md Salim took to Twitter to share fake news that Nibhas was amongst the 20 people who had committed suicide due to fear of NRC in Bengal.
Despite several people asking him to provide proof regarding his claims, he did not bother. This rumour was also picked up by several others on the social media platform who lap up every given opportunity to berate the government.
https://twitter.com/sumonseng/status/1180114805002297344?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
https://twitter.com/parthagee/status/1180179959664402433?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
https://twitter.com/DrunkMinister/status/1180110685927362560?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
Nibhas Sarkar, an RSS worker became popular on social media after Bengal BJP president Dilip Ghosh uploaded his photographs on Twitter during 2019 Lok Sabha campaign in Ranaghat constituency. According to a report by News18, the rumours on social media posts that Nibhas committed suicide over NRC issue, was ruled out by his brother Pralab Sarkar.
Tapas Ghosh, Mondal Sabhapati of Bagula, who came to know of Nibhas’ death from his brother on Thursday also confirmed that Nibhas told his brother he was fed up with his life before committing suicide. “He died on his way to a hospital at Krishnanagar. There was some family issue. His son is a doctor in Udaipur,” Ghosh said.
BJP state president Dilip Ghosh also ruled out claims of NRC behind Nibhas death. “There are people who are spreading such misinformation on social media. We condemn this,” Dilip Ghosh said.