Fake Message Linked to MHA Claims Posting on COVID-19 is Illegal

There is no person with the name ‘Ravi Nayak’ neither is there a designation called Principal Secretary in MHA.

(Source: WhatsApp/The Quint)

CLAIM

A message, attributed to the Ministry of Home Affairs, is being circulated on social media with a claim that all posts related to coronavirus have been ‘declared a punishable offence by the Central government’ and that only a government agency is permitted to post on coronavirus.

The message has been undersigned by ‘Ravi Nayak, Principal Secretary, Ministry of Hime Affairs’ and is being shared on Twitter, WhatsApp and Facebook.

Screenshot of Twitter posts.(Source: Twitter)

Screenshot of the Facebook post.(Source: Facebook)

The Quint also received multiple queries about the message on its WhatsApp helpline number.

(Source: WhatsApp/The Quint)

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WHAT’S THE TRUTH?

The message has been undersigned by ‘Ravi Nayak, Principal Secretary, Home Ministry’. So to check the veracity of this message, we decided to verify the credential of the person.

On going through the Ministry of Home Affairs website, we noticed that there was no person with the name ‘Ravi Nayak’ neither was there a designation called Principal Secretary.

(Source: Ministry of Home Affairs)

Further, we contacted the Ministry of Home Affairs and a source within the ministry told us that ‘the name and the designation doesn’t match with anyone in the ministry’.

Moreover, there are no media reports about any such order being passed by the Central government.

You can read all our fact-check stories on coronavirus here.

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