Controversial actress Swara Bhasker spread a misleading claim on Tuesday while trying to attack filmmaker Vivek Agnihotri and the BJP over Naxal terrorism. She used a now deleted News18 report which made a false claim to attack her ideological opponents.
The News18 report is from the 28th of August, 2015 and has now been deleted. The headline of the report read, “Two BJP leaders among 13 convicted for supplying arms to Naxals”. The report appears to have been deleted because there does not appear to have been the involvement of any BJP leader in the particular matter.
The News18 report was flagged by Reddit users as well for peddling misleading information. Users noted how other media reports had mentioned that the two were businessman with alleged political connections but there was no mention of them being BJP leaders.
Three days later, the Indian Express reported on the same matter and does not mention anything about the accused being BJP leaders. The headline of the report on the 31st of August, 2015 read, “8 arrested, police probe ‘deal’ between Maoists, mining firms”.
Thus, clearly, the news report used by Swara Bhasker to attack the BJP and Vivek Agnihotri contained false information about BJP leaders being arrested for Naxal connection. Having said that, there have been occasions in the past when BJP leaders have been arrested for alleged Naxal links. However, the one cited by the controversial actress is based on false information.
Swara Bhasker has spread false claims in the past as well, notably when she claimed that a real photograph of Azad Maidan riots was fake.