Days after the Allahabad High Court granted conditional bail to two accused in the IIT-BHU rape case, social media was rife with disinformation about BJP celebrating their release and welcoming the men by cutting a cake.
One of the leading proponents of fake news was Sayema. The overseas Congress’ social media chief, Avi Dandiya, also peddled disinformation about the ruling political dispensation.
Islamists and social media troll accounts, supporting Congress and the Samajwadi party, made wild claims about the BJP endorsing the bail of the rape accused.
How can a country be safe for women where rapists are welcomed by cutting cakes?? This is how BJP members celebrated the arrival of the rapist of a BHU student at his home. Will women be safe under the BJP government? @ChaudharyUncle @INCIndia @SupriyaShrinate @priyankac19 pic.twitter.com/E1LBFlRWR5
— amrish morajkar (@mogambokhushua) September 1, 2024
To substantiate their claims, the usual suspects shared an image of one of the accused and alleged that he was having a gala time with BJP workers.
In the said image, the accused’s face could be seen covered in cake. The fake news peddlers claimed that the picture was shot after he was released on bail.
In reality, the viral image is not recent. It was uploaded on social media on 12th July 2021 on the date of the accused Saksham Singh Patel’s birthday. To add to it, Saksham Singh was not granted bail by the Allahabad High Court.
Claim About BJP leader Welcoming IIT-BHU Gangrape Accused is False pic.twitter.com/CdT84Vrl0E
— Only Fact (@OnlyFactIndia) September 1, 2024
It is indeed true that the two accused in the IIT-BHU rape case, namely, Kunal Pandey and Anand Chauhan, were granted bail by the Allahabad High Court.
While Kunal was released on 24th August, Anand was released on 29th of last month. The third accused Saksham Singh Patel is yet to receive bail.
The trio were members of the BJP IT Cell but were quickly removed from the party after their role emerged in the heinous crime last year. The Yogi Adityanath government promptly acted against them and ensured their arrest.
But this did not stop the politically motivated fake news peddlers from re-sharing an old picture from 2021 as ‘BJP celebrating the release of IIT-BHU rape accused.’
