“Yesterday we spoke about the post-poll violence in West Bengal. and how misinformation is making the situation worse. There are attempts to give it communal colour. Today, we will tell you how the misinformation declared a person who is alive as dead and circulated the picture on multiple handles. The BJP’s Bengal unit last night posted a video on its social media handle. The video showed one Manik Moitro who it alleged had been killed in post-poll violence by Trinamool Congress workers in Sitalkuchi constituency. The video featured some flashy graphics, loud sensationalizing music, videos of violence and some clippings of speech by TMC chief Mamata Banerjee and other leaders. The video also featured people who have died in the violence. At 2minute 36 seconds in the video, an image pops up, according to the video it is of one Manik Moitro from Sitalkuchi. It is a five minute long video. However, there is some issue with the video. The image of a person shared along with others who have died in the violence is very much alive. and he himself came forward to clear this. This morning, Abhro Banerjee, an India Today journalist, tweeted that it was him in the picture, not some Manik Moitro. He also wrote a facebook post saying, “”I am Abhro Banerjee, living and hale and hearty and around 1,300 km away from Sitalkuchi. BJP IT Cell is now claiming I am Manik Moitra and died in Sitalkuchi. Please don’t believe these fake posts and please don’t worry. I repeat: I am (still) alive.””
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