As Neeraj Chopra won the Gold medal in the Javelin throw event on 7 August at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, a viral tweet apparently shared by him mentioned that he urged people to not give credit to Prime Minister Narendra Modi for the win.
However, the tweet had been shared by Chopra's imposter account '@i_m_nirajchopra' and that his official Twitter handle is '@Neeraj_chopra1.'
CLAIM
The viral tweet reads: 'ये गोल्ड मेडल मेरी और मेरे कोच की वर्षों मेहनत का नतीजा है। मोदी जी को इसका क्रेडिट देने की कोशिश ना करें'
(Translated: This gold medal is the result of years of hard work by me and my coach. Don't try to give credit to Modi ji.)
WHAT WE FOUND OUT
The official verified Twitter handle of Olympic gold medallist Neeraj Chopra is @Neeraj_chopra1.
SEVERAL RED FLAGS SHOW VIRAL TWEET IS FROM IMPOSTER ACCOUNT
On comparing the official Twitter handle of Neeraj Chopra with the one that shared the viral tweet, we found several red flags, thereby suggested that the latter is an imposter account.
Firstly, the imposter account is not a verified handle while the official one is.
Secondly, '@i_m_nirajchopra' spells Neeraj Chopra's name incorrectly.
Third, as per the official handle, Chopra joined Twitter in June 2017 whereas the imposter account joined Twitter in June 2021.
Fourth, the official handle has over four lakh followers while the imposter one, as per the archive, had nearly 2,000 followers.
Evidently, social media users fell for a tweet on Prime Minister Narendra Modi that was shared by an imposter account of Neeraj Chopra.
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