Fact Check: Tweets From Fake Account Of Sara Pilot Attacking Ashok Gehlot Go Viral, IANS Fell For Them

Amidst the ongoing political crisis in Congress, when Rajasthan Deputy Chief Minister and Congress party's Rajasthan Chief Sachin Pilot has threatened to leave the party with 30 MLAs destabilising the Rajasthan government, a tweet from the purported Twitter handle of Sara Pilot, wife of Sachin Pilot, has gone viral. The tweet has been tweeted 3500 times and got 22,000 likes.

बड़े बड़े जादूगरों के पसीने छूट जाते हैं जब हम दिल्ली का रुख करते हैं..।।#Sachin_pilot pic.twitter.com/NC4GewbFTr

— Sarah Sachin Pilot (@SarahSachin) July 12, 2020

The other tweets from the handle have gone viral.

6 साल गांव ढाणी सडको पर चलने वालो के पेरो मे छाले पड गये।
संघर्ष भरे जीवन पर पानी फेरकर जयचंद सत्ता हथियाने मे लग गये। - @INCIndia#Sachin_pilot #Sachin_RajasthanKaPilot pic.twitter.com/0qwijT9xcg

— Sarah Sachin Pilot (@SarahSachin) July 12, 2020

The tweets seem to be attacking current Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot. The cold war between CM Gehlot and Deputy CM Sachin Pilot has been a matter of media curiosity even before the govt was formed. The tweet alleges that even bigger magician falter when we (Sachin Pilot) turn to Delhi and the other tweet refers Ashok Gehlot as Jaichand and accuses him of grabbing the power while all the work was done by Sachin.

Wire agency IANS reported the tweet as a news story. Thus amplifying the handle and the information put by it. Outlook, Newstrack and Free Press Journal among others published the wire copy of IANS.

Claim:

Sara Pilot, wife of Sachin Pilot, attacks Rajasthan CM Ashok Gehlot on Twitter

Fact Check:

The claim is false. The twitter handle which has been quoted by IANS is a fake handle.

Sara Pilot earlier Sara Abdullah is the daughter of Farooq Abdullah, ex-Chief Minister of Jammu and Kashmir and sister of Omar Abdullah, who also was the Chief Minister of J&K. She has studied in Wharton University.

A look at the Twitter handle immediately gives an idea of it being fake.

Though the account claims to be an official one, it is filled with spelling errors. The name of Sara Pilot is spelled wrongly as Sarah. Spelling of Kashmir and Rajasthan is also wrong.

Tabeenah Anjum, a journalist based out of Rajasthan, pointed out that the account is fake. She wrote that she is surprised to see tweets from fake account making it to the mainstream news.

Please don't use tweets from here to file stories. This is a FAKE twitter account.

Surprised to see tweets from this account making it to mainstream news and agency stories. @TwitterIndia please take note

CC @OmarAbdullah @free_thinker @AltNews pic.twitter.com/hz8NinYgoH

— Tabeenah Anjum (@TabeenahAnjum) July 12, 2020

Despite having good no. of followings, the account is also not verified.

This is not the first time IANS fell for a fake Twitter handle. Recently, IANS reported tweets from a fake handle pretending to be deceased actor Sushant Singh Rajput's father account as news. In a tweet from their official account IANS claimed that Sushant Singh Rajput's father demanded that the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) investigate his son's death. The Logical Indian fact-checked it.

If you have any news that you believe needs to be fact-checked, please email us at factcheck@thelogicalindian.com or WhatsApp at 6364000343

Also Read: Fact Check: Screenshots Of Fake Tweets Goes Viral As Last Message From Sushant Singh Rajput