Several news outlets including The Indian Express, AajTak, Times Now and News 18 mistook a tweet by lawyer named Sonu Nigam Singh for singer Sonu Nigam and claimed the latter had praised a Bihar youth Amarjeet Jaikar for his singing, on Twitter.
Jaikar has become a social media sensation after a video of him singing a popular Bollywood song Dil De Diya Hai went viral. The video has already received plaudits from actors Sonu Sood, Nitu Chandra Srivastava and has reportedly landed him a playback opportunity for the upcoming Sonu Sood-starrer film Fateh.
BOOM found that Jaikar was praised by a Bihar-based lawyer Sonu Nigam Singh on Twitter.
An excerpt from The Indian Express report reads, "From actors Sonu Sood and Nitu Chandra, to singer Sonu Nigam, many celebrities took notice of his singing talent. Nigam had retweeted his video and praised him for being a “real singer”."
Times Now embedded the same tweet and stated, "Not only Sonu Sood, singing sensation Sonu Nigam too was all praise for the youngster."
India Today group's AajTak, Good News Today, The Lallantop also referred to the tweet by Nigam's namesake and claimed that it was a praise from the Bollywood singer.
Click here to view the tweet.
Other news outlets such as News 18, Dainik Bhaskar too mentioned the tweet as singer Sonu Nigam's.
Sonu Nigam Quit Twitter In 2017
BOOM ran a keyword search about singer Sonu Nigam's official Twitter account and found several news reports stating that the singer left the platform in 2017 after raising questions about its policies.
An NDTV report from May 24, 2017, says, "Singer Sonu Nigam has announced in 24 tweets posted this morning that he's quitting Twitter, citing a lack of respect for freedom of speech. Everyone is entitled to their opinion, argued Mr Nigam, 43, a day after his colleague Abhijeet Bhattacharya's account was suspended for his abusive tweets against female Twitter users like Shehla Rashid, a JNU student and activist who has made allegations of sex trafficking by some BJP leaders."
The report further states, "Mr Nigam said in his tweets that he is deleting his account because Twitter is 'one-sided' and 'everyone is angry.' Sonu Nigam advised us to take screenshots of the 24 tweets he posted announcing his departure from Twitter - so we've done just that.'"
The series of his tweets were tweeted by news agency ANI at that time.
An archived version of Sonu Nigam's official twitter account can be seen here.
We also found a Gulf News article from 2018 mentioning Nigam's stand about Twitter. The report quoted the singer saying, "I quit Twitter because it became a nuisance more than any assistance. Anybody has the right to say anything to anyone. For instance, I am talking to you now on the phone, but if I start abusing you I can be punished for it. You will write about me being bad-mouthed and question what my parents taught me… I will pay for it. But how do these guys go scott free?”
The singer however has not deleted his Facebook and Instagram pages. BOOM checked both the accounts and was unable to find any praises related to Jaikar.
BOOM has reached out to Sonu Nigam for a comment. The article will be updated as and when we get a response.
Who Is The Namesake Sonu Nigam Singh
We found that the verified Twitter handle named "@SonuNigamSingh" belongs to one Sonu Singh; According to the bio, Singh is from Bihar and a lawyer by profession. Singh's bio reads, "LAWYER | DIGITAL MEDIA CONSULTANT | PERSONAL FINANCE |ＴＲΛＤΞＲ| STOCKS | MINIMALIST | LEARNER" (sic.)
BOOM also found that the account has subscribed to Twitter blue and is thus not a legacy verified account. Below is a screenshot of the same.
Sonu Singh also thanked journalist Govind Pratap Singh on Twitter for pointing out the error in The Lallantop's video report.
Click here to view the tweet.
The Lallantop, acknowledged the error and apologised saying, "We will try our best not to do such mistake in future".