A screenshot of identical tweets from at least four different handles is being shared on social media with captions falsely claiming that Delhi Commission for Women's chairperson Swati Maliwal has concocted a story about her grandfather's death to defame the Uttar Pradesh government.
The viral screenshot shows a tweet from Maliwal's official Twitter handle which has been replicated by two other handles and used by a third handle to troll her.
BOOM found that of the three handles that copied Maliwal's tweet, one has been suspended, another doesn't exist anymore and the third has changed its name. We also contacted Swati Maliwal's office and were told that 'it was shameful that several senior journalists and eminent members of the biggest political party had stooped down to such levels trying to defame a person'.
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Maliwal had on April 22, 2021 tweeted 'My nana died waiting for emergency support in front of Sharda Hospital Greater NOIDA. I kept standing there for half hour and pleading for admission and nothing happened. Shame! Pathetic!'
The statement was tweeted by three handles namely @AdolffHitlar, @kaplnameena01 and @RamsamVenkat shortly after the DCW chairperson's tweet.
Now, a screenshot of these four tweets is being shared by social media users including verified Twitter handles with claims that Maliwal had created a fake narrative about her grandfather's death.
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The screenshot was also shared from verified Twitter handles including those of Amish Devgan, Major Surendra Punia, Pankaj Jha among others
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BOOM contacted Swati Maliwal's office for information on the issue. Speaking to BOOM, a representative from her office said, "Uttar Pradesh police has registered an FIR regarding this. The handles which have copied ma'am's tweet, two of them belong to some trolls of BJP who have later mentioned in their tweets that they were just trying to make fun."
"This is actually very shameful that several senior journalists and several eminent personalities from one of the biggest political party stoop down to such low levels trying to defame a person and trying to mock someone's death," the official told BOOM.
BOOM found that the handle @AdolffHitlar has been suspended while @RamsamVenkat doesn't exist anymore. Meanwhile, Twitter handle @Kaplnameena01 has been renamed @Kaplnameena. This third handle has now deleted the tweet.
We also came across a tweet from UP police's verified Twitter handle regarding the screenshot. In it's tweet, the Uttar Pradesh police writes 'We deeply regret the loss of precious human lives in the pandemic & understand the outburst of family members on social media who have been bereaved. At the same time we came across a disturbing trend of copy paste of the same messages by apparently fake handles'.
The screenshot of the tweets shared by the UP police proves that Maliwal's tweet was the earliest, and the last tweet from the handle @RamsamVenkat was an attempt to troll Maliwal rather than replicating her tweet.
Cached versions of two of the handles that copy-pasted Maliwal's tweet suggest they are Right Wing troll accounts. Check here and here.
The third handle @Kaplnameena, a pro-Congress handle, which has now deleted the tweet and been renamed, mentions itself as 'Official Account Kalpna Meena, Journalist. Politics & Policy. Ex. INC President'.
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