Social media posts claiming that fugitive diamond businessman Nirav Modi has admitted in a London court that he had not fled the country but was forced to escape by Bharatiya Janata Party leaders, are false.
BOOM found that the statement attributed to Nirav Modi is false as he hasn't given any such statement so far.
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The fugitive Indian businessman had been accused of a 1.8 billion dollar fraud by the Punjab National Bank. He had reportedly left India in January 2018. The fugitive dimantaire was arrested in the UK on March 16 this year. He was denied bail by the Westminster Magistrates' court and had been sent to custody till March 29. Read here.
The viral claim attributes a statement to Nirav Modi. The statement reads 'I did not flee from India, I was expelled. My share of Rs 13,000 crore is 32 %, the rest is taken by @BJP4India leaders." - Nirav Modi in London court. CBI is silent...'.
A screenshot of a tweet from a handle @aditi_munshi with the statement is also quite viral on social media.
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The same statement is being shared on Twitter too.
The claim is viral from several Facebook pages too.
Fact Check
BOOM checked news reports about any such statement made by Nirav Modi linking his exit from the country to BJP leaders but found none.
A report published in the Times of India on March 21 stated that 'Nirav Modi was arrested on Tuesday when a teller at Metro Bank in London, where he had gone to open an account, called the police'.
The report further stated that Modi was produced before the Westminster Magistrates' Court later, where he contested his extradition to India. However, the district judge Marie Mallon denied bail to him. He was remanded in custody till March 29.
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BOOM also tracked the Twitter handle @aditi_munshi, screenshot of whose tweet attributing the fake statement to Nirav Modi is now viral.
Aditi Munshi is a singer-turned-politician who won from the Rajarhat Gopalpur Assembly constituency seat on Trinamool Congress ticket in 2021. The Twitter account in the name of Munshi mentions 'Welcome to the official twitter handle of Singer and Politician Aditi Munshi Honourable Member of Legislative Assembly(All India Trinamool Congress) West Bengal'.
However, BOOM found only two tweets from this account.
BOOM then did a keyword search with relevant words and found the same statement shown to be tweeted by the handle @aditi_munshi on June 3, which matches with the date shown on the screen shot of the tweet that's viral now.
However, when one clicks on the link, we are taken to a page which says This Tweet is unavailable. This means that the tweet has been deleted.
However, BOOM could not independently verify whether the said Twitter handle is Munshi's official account. A search for the cached version of the said Twitter handle also did not show results for the deleted tweet.