By Hazel Gandhi
A news article purportedly published on the BBC India website claims to show excerpts from journalist Karan Thapar's interview with Sun TV's Pujitha Devaraju, where Thapar can be seen talking about the benefits of a certain investment scheme.
BOOM found that the claims are false, not only is the website falsely impersonating the BBC, but Thapar had earlier issued a clarification denying any such interview with Sun TV or promoting any fraudulent investment scheme.
The news article is being shared as a post on Facebook and is titled 'Sun TV management refuses to comment on the scandal surrounding its show “Vanakkam Tamizha'. Vanakkam Tamizha refers to a famous talk show on Tamil-language channel Sun TV. The news story claims to show how Karan Thapar spoke to the show's host, Pujitha Devaraju and shared the secret of a profitable investment scheme.
The article carries the link of the website that Thapar is seemingly promoting. According to the intervieew on this website, Thapar convinces Devaraju to invest 26,000 and she begins seeing a profit on her investment while the show is still broadcasting.
Below is a screenshot of the article:
Click here to view the webpage.
Below is the Facebook post that carried a link to this article:
Click here to view the post.
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FACT CHECK
BOOM found that Karan Thapar's interview with Pujitha Devaraju is completely fabricated and he has never promoted any investment schemes like the one mentioned in the article.
We first examined the webpage that carried the BBC news article and found that while it carried the news organisation's logo and typeface, its URL was inconsistent with that of BBC India's.
While all original BBC articles begin with 'bbc.com', this one read 'startriskrewardlearn.com'.
We then ran a keyword search using 'Karan Thapar, Pujitha Devaraju, BBC, and Sun TV' and found an article published byThe Wire on November 1, 2023, when similar statements were being attributed to him. According to this article, Thapar had spoken up against the false posts circulating in his name on Facebook.
A part of his statement read, “It has come to my notice through friends and well-wishers that fake and fraudulent webpages and Facebook posts using the names of BBC.INDIA and SUNTV are being circulated with malicious and defamatory content about me."
Further, he also specified Pujitha Devaraju's name and how the webpages were using their names to promote money-making schemes.
While calling the webpages false and fabricated, he clarified that he never gave the interview that was being attributed to him. He added that he had reported the content on Facebook, filed a police complaint, and also notified BBC India and Sun TV about this, urging them to take suitable action against the content.
BOOM has previously debunked other fraudulent moneymaking websites impersonating genuine news outlets such as The Indian Express by using the name of famous personalities like Nandan Nilekani and Mukesh Ambani.
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