A screenshot of a tweet posted by the handle @RanjanGogoii is being shared widely on social media. Users allege that the account belongs to former Chief Justice of India (CJI) Ranjan Gogoi. The tweet reads, “Community leaders determine how Muslims, Buddhists, and Christians celebrate their respective festivals. But when it comes to Hindus and their festivals, the courts will decide. Articles 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, and 31 of the Indian Constitution are discriminatory and should be amended.”
Facebook user Aryan Singh posted the screenshot in question.
Jai Shree Ram 🙏 🙏
Posted by Aryan Singh on Saturday, June 12, 2021
The image is also widespread on the social networking platform.
Parody account
We came across various Twitter handles posing as the official handle of the former CJI. But none of these were verified, which brought their authenticity into question. Furthermore, we could not find any account with the username ‘@RanjanGogoii’ which meant that the account was either deleted or the username altered.
Alt News rummaged through web archive links to find out more information about this account. We found several old tweets posted by this handle. It used to describe itself as a parody account in its bio.
We combed through the archives and located the archived version of the tweet in circulation, originally posted on March 26, 2020. Please note that the date and time in this tweet are not as per the IST.
Next, we performed a Google search using the URL of the archived version of the post, which led us to the Twitter handle @PuspendraTweet. Simply put, both these usernames belong to the same account. @RanjanGogoii has now been changed to @PuspendraTweet.
We found the original tweet on the timeline of @PuspendraTweet. It was posted on March 26, 2020 at 3:45 PM.
The account is followed by a number of verified handles, including BJP members Kapil Mishra, Major Surendra Poonia and Gajendra Chauhan.
A tweet posted by a parody account was falsely attributed to former Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi and shared online. Earlier too, tweets issued by fake handles posing as Nita Ambani, Dr. Kafeel Khan and farmer leader Rakesh Tikait were believed to be genuine.
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