In today’s digital media era, the prevalence of fake news and misinformation threatens the credibility of the fourth pillar of democracy. Fake news represents a new form of yellow journalism, involving the spread of propaganda and false narratives. A prime example of such yellow journalism is the handle ‘Sadaf Afreen’ on X. Although Sadaf claims to be a journalist, her handle is known for continuously disseminating misleading information particularly targeting the Hindu community and to exacerbate social division. Let us look at some fake news spread by Sadaf Afreen so far.
| Serial No | Claim | Fact |
| 1. The news of a Muslim businessman being beaten up for not chanting ‘Jai Shri Ram’ in a train is false | Between Hapur and Moradabad, 8-10 individuals boarded the Padmavat Express, attacked a man named Asim Hussain, and chanted ‘Jai Shree Ram.’ When Asim refused to comply, he was beaten. | Asim Hussain had molested a woman on the train, due to which he was beaten up by people. There was no incident of raising slogans of ‘Jai Shri Ram’ on the train. |
| 2. Ganga Vilas Cruise being stranded in Chhapra, Bihar is false | Ganga Vilas Cruise launched by PM got stuck on its maiden voyage at Chhapra, Bihar. | Due to insufficient water where the cruise was to anchor, the tourists were transferred to shore by a small boat. The cruise was not stuck. |
| 3. False claim of priest being beaten up for teasing a girl | When the priest who came to perform pooja in the house misbehaved with the girl, the family members beat him with a cricket bat. | The claim that the priest molested a girl is false. Four youths beat him for refusing to let them store cricket equipment in the temple. |
| 4. The claim that MP policemen strangled Congress MLA Vijayalakshmi is false | Dalit MLA Vijayalakshmi Sadho was dragged and pushed into a vehicle by police during a protest in Madhya Pradesh. | The police did not hold Vijayalakshmi by the throat; she was holding her own throat, as shown in photos from other angles. |
| 5. Supreme Court didn’t halt the promotion of the judge who convicted Rahul Gandhi | Supreme Court has stayed the promotion of Judge Harish Verma who convicted Rahul Gandhi. | The claim that the judge who sentenced Rahul Gandhi, Harish Verma, had his promotion stopped is false. |
| 6. The claim of a sex racket running in Jaunpur BJP office is misleading | The hotel where BJP’s office is located in Jaunpur, UP, was the place where prostitution was going on. | The BJP office on the first floor of the building was closed for months. The hotel on the ground floor had no connection to BJP. |
| 7. Alamgir Mosque was not built by Hindu Pandit to honor Aurangzeb | The Alamgir Mosque was built by a Pandit in honor of Aurangzeb for saving his daughter’s honor. | The claim that the Alamgir Mosque was built to honor Aurangzeb is false. It was originally Beni Madhav Temple, demolished by Aurangzeb in 1673 to build the mosque. |
| 8. Claim that the principal was beaten for Christian prayers is false. | Principal beaten up for conducting Christian prayers in a school in Maharashtra. | The principal was beaten up for installing CCTV cameras in the girls’ toilet. |
| 9. Claim that a Hindu husband killed his Muslim wife in Aligarh is misleading | Deepak killed his Muslim wife Muskan in Aligarh. | Muskan, who had been separated from her former husband Deepak for 4 years, had been living with Faizan for the past year. Faizan was arrested in connection with Muskan’s death. |
| 10. Pappu Qureshi, who accused Bittu Bajrangi of being an accused in the Nuh violence, is not a BJP worker | Bittu Bajrangi the main conspirator in Nuh Violence. | Pappu Qureshi is not a BJP member; he identifies as a Congress supporter on Facebook Live and has an old enmity with Bittu Bajrangi. |
| 11. Claim that Baba Ambedkar had the support of Muslim voters in drafting the Constitution is misleading | Baba Ambedkar was able to write the constitution because Muslims supported him. | Dr. Ambedkar was initially elected to the Constituent Assembly from Bengal, but after partition, he represented Bombay with Congress support. The claim that he wrote the Constitution with Muslim support is misleading. |
| 12. Claim of rape of a female constable in Saryu Express is false | A woman police officer was brutally gang-raped in Saryu Express. | The three miscreants who attacked the female head constable were criminals. They tried to rob, harassed her, then attacked and fled. |
| 13. Asif had put up posters in Gurugram threatening that ‘Muslim sisters and daughters will be raped’ | Posters in Gurugram threaten Muslim slum residents to vacate within two days to “save their life and honor.” | Asif was arrested by the police. He had put up the poster due to competition in the scrap business. |
| 14. Claim that Canada has banned RSS is misleading | Amid tensions between India and Canada, Canada is going to ban RSS. | The claim that the Canadian government is banning RSS is misleading; the person advocating this is the CEO of the National Council of Canadian Muslims, not a government representative. |
| 15. Picture of Palestinian children killed is outdated and not related to the current Gaza-Israel conflict | The children seen in the photo were killed by the Israeli army in the ongoing war. | The photo is old and has no connection with the current Israel-Palestine conflict. |
| 16. Algerian football club celebration video viral as an attack on Gaza | Algerian football club celebration video viral as an attack on Gaza. | The video was unrelated to the conflict; it was a celebration video for an Algerian football club. |
| 17. Former IPS Sanjeev Bhatt is not behind prison for raising questions on Modi government | Former IPS Sanjiv Bhatt is in jail for raising questions on Modi government. | In 1996, Sanjeev Bhatt falsely implicated a Rajasthan lawyer for opium, leading to a 20-year prison sentence and a Rs 2 lakh fine. He was also sentenced to life imprisonment for the custodial death of Prabhudas Vaishnani in Jamnagar. |
| 18. CNN exposes fake attack on Israel on camera | CNN has exposed a fake attack on Israel on camera. | This video is edited. A separate audio was added to this video. |
| 19. Video of Shivraj Singh Chouhan crying after Mohan Yadav was made the CM is misleading | Video shows Shivraj Chouhan crying after Mohan Yadav was declared the CM. | The video is from the year 2019 when his adopted daughter Bharti died, due to which Shivraj Singh Chouhan started crying. |
| 20. No communal angle in the case of beating of a Muslim youth in Kushinagar, UP | Two Muslim teenagers were attacked by some Hindu youths in Kushinagar. One victim was stripped and beaten while the other was pushed into a pond of cold water. | There is no communal angle in this. Some of the accused involved in this were from the Muslim community. |
| 21. Claim that two twins were killed in the Israel-Gaza war is fake | Palestinian couple blessed with two set of twins after 16 years, but Israeli bombing took the lives of these four little kids and their mother. | This photo is from Birmingham in 2009. It has nothing to do with the Israel-Gaza war. |
| 22. Agniveer soldier Amritpal Singh was not given the guard of honor | Agniveer soldier Amritpal Singh was not given the guard of honor. | Amritpal Singh committed suicide and soldiers do not get Guard of Honour in case of death due to suicide. |
| 23. Viral video of Nitish Kumar’s meeting with the leaders of India Alliance is old | Nitish Kumar met with the leaders of INDI Alliance and said that he belongs to everyone. | The video is old. |
| 24. No terror angle in the 770 kg explosives recovered from the house of an RSS leader in Kerala | 770 Kg explosives recovered from the house of RSS leader. | The accused planned to illegally distribute 770 kg of firecrackers for the Vishu festival in Kerala on April 14 without a license. |
| 25. Claim about Muslim student beaten in Gujarat for offering namaz | Muslim student was beaten by Hindu mob in Gujarat for offering namaz. | The foreign Muslim student initially protested about offering Namaaz under the open sky. No religious slogans were raised, and there was no misconduct towards the student. |
| 26. Picture shared as Jan Vishwas Maha Rally in Patna is edited | There is a huge crowd at the rallies of Rahul Gandhi and Tejaswi Yadav. | The picture is edited. |
| 27. Not only the mosque but also the temple was demolished in Delhi’s Mehrauli | DDA officials demolished a 600-700 year old historical mosque in Mehrauli, Delhi without any notice. | Along with the mosque, a decades-old temple has also been demolished as it was built on DDA land. |
| 28. Claim that Muslim girl students in Kanpur school were called Pakistani terrorists is false | A school teacher in Kanpur, UP called Muslim girl students Pakistani and terrorists. | During a debate at Hardard School in Kanpur, a student discussed the Hamas-Israel conflict, which upset some Muslim students. The accusation of calling them Pakistani or terrorists is incorrect. |
| 29. Claim of opening postal ballot boxes before counting of votes in Balaghat, Madhya Pradesh is misleading | Postal ballot boxes were opened before vote counting in Balaghat, Madhya Pradesh. | The postal ballots were sorted in the strong room in the presence of Congress and BJP people. |
| 30. Claim of Palestinian woman ‘Isra Jabis’ being thrown acid and having her finger chopped off in Israeli prison is false | Palestinian woman Isra Jabis was thrown acid and her finger was chopped off in Israeli prison. | Isra was a suicide bomber who was injured in a car blast accident. Israel held her guilty of the bomb blast. |
| 31. PM Modi didn’t offer a chadar at a dargah | PM Modi offered a chadar at a dargah. | This video is old; PM Modi is placing a cloth on the shrine of Saint Kabir, not at a dargah. The background azaan sound has been edited. |
| 32. Claim of a Muslim woman being burnt alive in Jharkhand is misleading | A woman named Amisha Parveen was burnt alive over a land dispute in Bokaro, Jharkhand. | The woman had set herself on fire. |
| 33. Video of Israeli police arresting Palestinian children is old | Israeli soldiers captured Palestinian children and locked them in cages | The video is from 2017 and has no connection with the ongoing war |
| 34. Claim that a Palestinian girl was killed in an Israeli attack is false | In Israel attack, a little girl was injured and died due to internal bleeding. | The girl is alive and safe. |
| 35. Video of protest against Netanyahu in Israel is old and misleading | The people are protesting against Netanyahu and shouting slogans ‘Netanyahu is a murderer.’ | This issue was misrepresented by combining two videos. The first is 1.5 years old, and the second shows protests demanding the return of citizens kidnapped by Hamas. |
| 36. Old photo of child goes viral linking it to Israel-Hamas conflict | A little girl lost her life in an Israeli attack during the ongoing war. | The picture is almost 19 year old. |
| 37. Hindu organizations did not demonstrate in support of Iqbal’s killers | Hindu organisations demonstrated in support of Iqbal’s killers. | The protest was not in support of Iqbal’s killers but protested against the targeting of Hindus and looting of Hindu shops in the Iqbal murder case. |
| 38. Claim of rape of a woman in Jaipur is false | In Jaipur, the woman was raped and burnt alive. | This case was not about rape and murder of a woman but a dispute between transgenders. |
| 39. No communal angle in the case of beating of a Muslim kid in Kanpur | In Kanpur, a Muslim kid was beaten. | The name of the accused who beat the child is Mohammad Faisal, who has been arrested by the police. |
| 40. Claim of Shahabuddin’s mob lynching in Jharkhand is false | Maulana Shahabuddin Saheb, the Imam of the mosque in Koderma, Jharkhand died due to mob lynching. | Maulana Shahabuddin died not due to mob lynching but due to a road accident. |
| 41. Claim that the Jannatul Firdaus Mosque in Bawana, Delhi was demolished illegally is misleading | In Bawana, authorities bulldozed a mosque named Jannat ul Firdaus, calling it an illegal construction. | The Mosque was illegally built on a park, leading to its demolition by authorities. |
| 42. Imam Akram was not murdered in Moradabad, claim of communal angle is false | Imam Maulana Akram of a mosque was shot dead in Moradabad. | Maulana Akram wanted to remarry but there was a dispute in the house regarding this and due to this Imam committed suicide. |
| 43. Slogans of Pakistan Zindabad were raised on the victory of Congress leader in Karnataka | Inside the Karnataka assembly, slogans of “Nasir sahab zindabad” were not raised but “Pakistan zindabad” slogans were raised. | On the basis of the FSL report, it was proved that supporters of the Congress candidate in the Karnataka Assembly had raised slogans of Pakistan Zindabad. |
| 44. There will be no hindrance in Muslim marriage after the abolition of Muslim Marriage act | After the abolition of Muslim Marriage Act, 35% of Assam’s Muslims will no longer be able to marry. | The main purpose behind abolishing this law is to end child marriage. Some provisions of this law allow the marriage of minors, however the new law will abolish such provisions. |
| 45. Video of PM Modi waving towards the sea from Sudarshan Setu is misleading | There was no one in front of PM Modi, despite this he was waving his hand towards the empty sea from Sudarshan Setu. | PM Modi was waving his hand towards the sea and greeting the people sitting in the boat. |
| 46. Qatar didn’t threaten to stop gas supply amid Israel-Palestine war | Qatar’s King Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani threatened to cut off gas supplies to the world if the bombing of Gaza did not stop. | Qatar didn’t make any such statement. |
| 47. Claim that Jana Sena has broken its alliance with NDA and joined TDP is false | Pawan Kalyan’s party Jana Sena has broken its alliance with NDA and formed an alliance with TDP. | Pawan Kalyan clarified that JSP is still a part of the BJP-led national coalition. |
| 48. System of displaying station names in Urdu in Lucknow Metro is old | Now information will be displayed in Urdu in Lucknow Metro. | The Lucknow Metro in UP already has a provision for station names in Urdu on the digital board. |
| 49. Church in Mirzapur was built on forest department land | In Mirzapur, UP, a church was declared illegal and was demolished by running a bulldozer on it. | A church was built by illegally occupying forest department land in Jungle Mohalla in Ahrora police station area of Mirzapur. |
| 50. Claim of gangrape of a minor girl in Jhansi, UP is false | A minor girl who had gone out to defecate was kidnapped by some brutes and gang-raped in a moving car. They then left the girl on the highway and fled. | The girl had run away from home to marry her boyfriend, but when the boyfriend did not come, she along with her aunt fabricated the story of gangrape to extort money from the neighbouring youths. |
| 51. Claim of cow dung syrup in the viral video is false | A drink made from cow dung is being served. | The video shows a drink being made from cannabis leaves (Bhang) |
| 52. BJP did not make the girl dance on stage to get justice for the female doctor in West Bengal | In West Bengal, during a protest against the rape of a medical student at RG Kar Medical College, a girl was made to dance on the stage. | The dance program was not linked to BJP but organized by the Manasa & Behula Lakshminder Mela committee, which has a 15-year tradition of stage performances. Banners showing solidarity with a rape incident were displayed before regular performances resumed. |
| 53. BJP leaders didn’t cut a cake to welcome the IIT-BHU gangrape accused after they got bail | BJP leaders cut a cake to welcome the IIT-BHU gangrape accused after they got bail | The picture is about 3 years old. Accused Kunal and Abhishek got bail on 31 August 2024 while the viral photo is from July 2021. |
| 54. Newspaper cutting saying taking bribe for good work will not be considered crime is 9 years old | The Law Commission has proposed a new law to the government, suggesting that accepting a bribe for performing a good deed will not be considered a crime. | The viral newspaper cutting is 9 years old. Taking bribe for the right work is not a crime’ was just a proposal of the Law Commission. It was not implemented but in 2018, the Central Government made the Anti-Corruption Law stricter. |
| 55. Rs 52 crore is the combined cost of demolition of the Hatkeshwar bridge and construction of a new one | The Hatkeshwar Bridge was built in Ahmedabad, Gujarat at a cost of Rs 42 crore but due to poor construction material, it will now be demolished for Rs 52 crore | The total cost of demolition and reconstruction of Hatkeshwar Bridge is Rs 52 crore. Also, the entire cost of new construction will be recovered from the old contractor. |
| 56. Claim that Gaurav Bhatia was beaten up by lawyers is fake | Video shows lawyers thrashing BJP spokesperson Gaurav Bhatia. | The video is from November 2019, when a parking dispute between lawyers and Delhi Police turned into a scuffle at Tis Hazari Court in Delhi. |
| 57. The name of the accused youth who spit on rotis in Baghpat is not Naresh but Shahzad | In Baghpat, a chicken seller named Naresh was caught making roti by spitting on it. | Shahzad, on his first day at Naresh Hotel in Baghpat, was arrested for spitting on roti after police took cognizance of the incident. |
| 58. In Bahraich, encroachment was removed from government land on the orders of the High Court, there is no communal angle | Due to a fight between two neighbours , 23 Muslim houses in an area of Bahraich were demolished by the administration using bulldozers. | In Sarai Jagna, Bahraich, houses built illegally on government land were removed in 2023 following a notice from the Revenue Department and a High Court order. |
| 59. The claim that a mosque was bulldozed in Gujarat despite a Supreme Court ban is misleading | Despite a Supreme Court stay, a 500-year-old cemetery, dargah, and mosque in Somnath, Gujarat, were bulldozed. | Bulldozers were used to remove unauthorized encroachments on government land in Somnath after notices were ignored. |
| 60. Claim about two monks molesting a girl in Ayodhya is misleading | The two monks molested a girl and were beaten by the public, later attacking a man who protested. | The dispute occurred between two parties over making a reel on a motorcycle. |
| 61. Viral photos of “Gaza Girl” in rubble are actually from Syria and Lebanon | A girl in Gaza was trapped under rubble following an airstrike by Israel. | 1.The first image is misrepresented; it actually shows a Syrian girl peeking outside from a small hole in her room. 2. The second image, shows a girl injured in an Israeli airstrike in Baalbek, Lebanon. |
| 62. Claim that slogans of ‘Jai Shri Ram’ during survey in mosque incited riots is false | The riot broke out in Sambhal due to slogans of “Jai Shri Ram” being raised during the survey in the mosque. | Jai Shri Ram slogans were raised after rioting broke out at a place away from the mosque. |
| 63. Order of survey in Sambhal Jama Masjid is not a violation of Place of Worship Act | The survey of the mosque is illegal as it is protected under the Places of Worship Act (1991). | As per Sections 3 and 4 of the Places of Worship Act (1991) and the provisions of the Archaeological Sites and Remains Act (1958), the Jama Masjid of Sambhal is not protected under the Places of Worship Act (1991). |
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