A tweet by a Twitter account impersonating Sudha Murty - author and chairperson of the Infosys Foundation, has gone viral with several Twitter users believing it to be Murty's actual account.
On November 8, 2022, Murty, the wife of Infosys founder Narayana Murthy and mother-in-law of British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, briefly met controversial right-wing leader Sambhaji Rao Bhide at an event in Sangli, Maharashtra.
A video showing the philanthropist bowing to touch Bhide's feet, drew sharp reactions on social media.
An unverified account @sudhamurty tweeted the video which showed Murty seeking blessings of the former Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) leader who is also the founder of Shiv Pratishthan.
Bhide had recently courted controversy on November 2, 2022, when he admonished a female TV reporter for not wearing a 'bindi' and made sexist remarks about her appearance.
The video of the incident went viral and happened after he had met Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde at Mantralaya (state secretariat) in south Mumbai, which had prompted the state women's commission to issue him a notice.
The unverified Twitter handle with the user name - Sudha Murthy (@sudhamurty) tweeted the 25 seconds video of Murty meeting Bhide. The tweet gained around 690 retweets and 88 quote tweets with 102.9 K views till the time of writing this article.
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Several Twitter users fell for the fake account mistaking it to be Murty's handle that shared the video.
Journalist Nikhil Wagle quote tweeted the tweet from the fake account, with the caption when translated from Marathi reads, "Sudha Murthy posted this video on Twitter. If it was an accidental meeting, what was achieved by falling at the feet of such an infamous person?"
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The same viral tweet by Murty's fake Twitter handle was also retweeted by Shefali Vaidya, a right wing columnist. BOOM has previously fact-checked Vaidya for tweeting disinformation.
The fake Twitter handle (@sudhamurthy) has 71.2 thousand followers and its bio reads, "sudha murthy" with around 220 tweets posing as Murty.
Click here to view, and here for an archive.
"Not On Any Social Media:" Sudha Murty's Office
BOOM reached out to a representative at Sudha Murty's office who confirmed that the Twitter handle (@sudhamurty) is not her official handle and that she is not on Twitter.
"No, this is not her Twitter handle, she does not have any Twitter account. She is neither on Instagram or Facebook and not on any public social media platform," a representative from Murty's office told BOOM.
