Video of ED raid in Kolkata falsely shared again, this time as crackdown on Surat businessman - Alt News
Shinjinee Majumder
5th November 2022 / 5:30 pm / Last updated: 9th November 2022
A video apparently showing visuals of a raid by the Enforcement Directorate at the house of a Surat-based cloth merchant named Sekhar Agarwal has been shared widely on Twitter. It has been claimed that Shekhar Agarwal is an Aam Aadmi Party worker. (Archive)
गुजरात के सूरत में, देश की सबसे ईमानदार पार्टी आम आदमी पार्टी के, ईमानदार नेता #शेखर_अग्रवाल के घर पर RAID पड़ी है…
*इतनी रकम देख कर आपको इनकी ईमानदारी और इनकी चुनाव की तैयारी का आंकलन हो जाएगा..
एक और केश कांड 😎👇@KapilMishra_IND @TajinderBagga @TheYadavPrince @CRPaatil pic.twitter.com/eCQr6EMPVO
— Anshu Chudasama (@ChudasmaAnshu) November 4, 2022
Below, we have added more tweets with similar claims. (Archives- 1, 2, 3, 4, 5)
The video was also viral in September. Then, users had claimed that Agarwal had been a Congress worker in the past, and was currently associated with the Aam Aadmi Party. (Archive)
*GUJ : सूरत के कपड़ा व्यापारी Sekhar Agarwal के घर से ED ने बरामद किया 2000 और 500 के बंडलों का अंबार, गिनती के लिए मंगाई गई मशीन*
*पहले कांग्रेस मे था… अब आप मे जुड़ गया है*
*चम्मचो मे मची भगदड हुए निराश* pic.twitter.com/0eSqbtHJwD
— श्रवण शर्मा TSP 🕉️📿 (@Sharwan78562364) September 14, 2022
The video has also been shared several times on Facebook.
The said video has also been shared several times on YouTube as well with the same claim.
The video was also shared with the claim that the money was seized during a raid by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) at a Popular Front of India (PFI) office in Kerala. The claim came after NIA conducted raids at multiple locations linked to the PFI on September 27.
Money seized by NIA in PFI office in Kerala pic.twitter.com/y1qyJX8q4m
— gautam chawat (@ChawatGautam) September 29, 2022
It was shared widely on Facebook as well.
Upon a reverse image search using one of the key-frames of the viral video, we were led to a September 10 tweet by @kumarsubodh_. The user had tweeted the viral video with the caption, “#ED raids underway at a businessman’s premises in connection with a money laundering case. Over 50 crores cash recovered and being counted by ED officials during the searches in Kolkata related to mobile gaming app fraud case. Counting is still on”.
UPDATE | #Kolkata: #ED raids underway at a businessman’s premises in connection with a money laundering case. Over 50 crores cash recovered and being counted by ED officials during the searches in Kolkata related to mobile gaming app fraud case. Counting is still on. https://t.co/gBYSwcZOJu pic.twitter.com/fQJLOALiHm
— Subodh Kumar (@kumarsubodh_) September 10, 2022
Taking a cue from this, we performed a keyword search on Google. The viral video had been aired during India Today’s coverage of the aforementioned ED raid in Kolkata. According to the report, a team of ED officials raided the premises of businessman Aamir Khan while probing an alleged case of fraud through a mobile gaming app, ‘E-Nuggets’. Cash worth Rs 17 crore and property documents were seized. Cash counting machines were brought in during the raid. (The viral part of the clip can be seen from 0:07 of the video below.)
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UN69vq1fTvE?start=7]
Business Today also aired the viral clip during its coverage of the ED raids at the Kolkata residences of the promoters of the mobile gaming app. The video can be seen at 0:28 of the video below.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dq4om07mhRc]
The viral video was aired by CNN News 18 and NDTV in their respective reportage as well.
We also found a tweet by the official Twitter account of the Enforcement Directorate, announcing a raid carried out by them at six locations in Kolkata ‘in respect to an investigation relating to the Mobile Gaming Application’.
ED has carried out search operations under PMLA, 2002 (on 10.09.2022) at 06 premises in Kolkata, in respect to an investigation relating to the Mobile Gaming Application. Cash amounting to Rs 17.32 Cr has been seized
— ED (@dir_ed) September 12, 2022
Additionally, no credible reports of any raid by ED officials at the residence of an AAP worker were found. Moreover, we spoke to Manoj Sorathiya, the Aam Aadmi Party’s (AAP) Gujarat state secretary, who denied the viral claims. He also said that AAP had no worker named Shekhar Agarwal.
Student of Economics at Presidency University. Interested in misinformation.
Rahul and Priyanka Gandhi recently performed aarti at the Narmada Ghat in Madhya Pradesh’s Omkareshwar…
In the wake of the alleged murder of Shraddha Walkar by his partner Aftab Amin…
The video of a group of people stopping an e-rickshaw with BJP flags attached to…
Last week during the G20 summit in Bali, world leaders were informed of a missile…
Recently, several prominent BJP leaders claimed that Prime Minister Narendra Modi had intervened to stop…