Bajrang Dal Members Held for Killing BJP Workers? No, Fake Report

ANI had reportedly mixed two stories in 2018, due to which this report came into being.

CLAIM

A report on the ‘arrest of 11 Bajrang Dal workers in connection with the murder of a BJP worker in West Bengal’ published by a portal called ‘Khabar Mafia’ on 15 October 2019 is now doing the rounds on the internet.

According to this report, days after the body of a BJP worker, Trilochan Mahato, was found hanging from a tree in Purulia district, a body of another BJP worker was found in Dava village of the same district in West Bengal.

The report then goes on to add that the BJP is killing its own party workers for political gains.

The story has also been shared on Facebook.

WHAT’S THE TRUTH?

While inspecting the content of this news piece, we looked for reports which might have carried this story.

We then searched on Google with keywords ‘पश्चिम बंगाल मे BJP ने ही कराई थी अपने कार्यकर्ता की हत्या’ (BJP killed its own party workers in West Bengal) and came across a story on Dailyhunt, a news aggregator. The dateline of this story was 4 June.

On looking further, we came across an article on NDTV, dated 27 June 2018, which had reported on Trilochan Mahato’s death. This report mentioned that the police had arrested a middle-aged man, Punjabi Mahato, in connection with the teenager’s death.

It further mentioned that the youth’s family had filed a complaint against supporters of the Trinamool Congress, but there is no mention of BJP or Bajrang Dal worker was arrested.

So, clearly the story about the death of these two BJP workers was old. But the next question was pertaining to the arrest of 11 Bajrang Dal workers.

OLD FALSE STORY REPORTED AS A NEWS ONE

We then looked for more inputs on this incident to know if there was any connection in between the arrest of the Bajrang Dal workers and the death of the BJP workers.

There was a news report by Newslaundry, published in 2018, which mentioned that the story was actually false and it came into being “owing to an error in assessment” by ANI. The story was later pulled down by the news agency, reported the portal.

The report further read that ANI mixed up two stories and that’s how 11 Bajrang Dal members were said to be arrested in connection with the murders.

In reality, the arrest of the Bajrang Dal workers was in connection with Ram Navami violence and not the murder of BJP workers.

Reportedly, several media outlets including the Times of India and Deccan Chronicle misreported the incident. However, the stories have now been taken down.

But a video on IBTimes continues to be online with a description that reads, “11 Bajrang Dal activists in Bengal were arrested for their alleged involvement in the murder of BJP workers, which happened recently in the state. The accused were transferred to Murshidabad.”

The same story was earlier tweeted by MP Congress in June 2019. And the tweet has still not been taken down.

Clearly, an old story from 2018 with absolutely no substance has resurfaced to claim that the killings of the BJP workers in West Bengal are for political gains by the BJP.

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