Days after IAS officer Pooja Singhal, the secretary of the Department of Mines & Geology, Jharkhand, came under Enforcement Directorate (ED) radar for her alleged corruption charges, a picture of her with Union Home Minister Amit Shah has surfaced on the internet.
It has been claimed that the picture was taken days before ED seized cash worth Rs 19 crore from the residence of a Ranchi-based Chartered Accountant who has connections with Pooja Singhal.
The caption in Hindi read: “घर से करोड़ों का कैश पकड़ाने से थोड़े दिनों पहले आइएएस पूजा सिंघल की एक तस्वीर।”
(Translation: A picture of IAS Pooja Singhal a few days before ED seized cash worth crores from home)
The above post can be seen here.
FACT CHECK
NewsMobile fact-checked the above post and found it to be misleading.
Upon putting the picture through Reverse Image Search, we came across several similar posts making the same claim including a post by filmmaker Avinash Das. Rubbishing Das’ claim, a Twitter user suggested that the picture is from 2017.
According to the screenshot of a report shared by a Twitter user, the picture was taken during the Garib Kalyan Mela in Ranchi, Jharkhand which Amit Shah had attended on September 16, 2017.
Taking a cue from that above tweet, we ran a search and found the full video of the Garib Kalyan Mela in Ranchi, Jharkhand on the official YouTube channel of the Bharatiya Janata Party.
The video, dated September 16, 2017, showed Union Home Minister Amit Shah addressing a rally and later distributing the cheques and gas connections to the beneficiaries of several schemes. On closely observing the video, we noticed IAS officer Pooja Singhal assisting the beneficiaries who were coming on the stage.
In the above collage, we can clearly see Pooja Singhal is wearing the same saree in both sets of pictures. Hence, it is clear that the picture in circulation is from the same event.
Taking all the facts into consideration, it can be concluded that the woman in the viral picture with Union Home Minister Amit Shah is IAS Pooja Singhal, however, the picture in question was taken on September 16, 2017. Therefore, the viral claim attached to the picture of Shah meeting Singhal is false.
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