Mistaken identity: Singer Arpita Mukherjee wrongly projected as accused in corruption case
Last week, the Enforcement Directorate arrested West Bengal Industries and Commerce Minister Partha Chatterjee in connection with irregularities in recruitment to School Service Commission.
By Newsmeter Network Published on 27 July 2022 5:47 AM GMT
Last week, the Enforcement Directorate arrested West Bengal Industries and Commerce Minister Partha Chatterjee in connection with irregularities in recruitment to School Service Commission. The ED recovered about Rs 20 crore from Arpita Mukherjee, a close associate of the senior minister. (Read more here and here)
Following this, several media outlets such as ABP News and News 18 Bangla began telecasting pictures of a woman who they identified as Arpita Mukherjee. "ED has arrested Arpita Mukherjee," reads the caption (Click here and here for archives)
FACT CHECK
NewsMeter performed a reverse image search on the picture of the woman in the banner and found an IMDb page identifying her as singer Arpita Mukherjee. https://archive.ph/JfAlV
An excerpt from the bio reads, "Arpita Mukherjee was the winner of the "Golden Voice Hunt" on Zee tv's Sa Re Ga Ma Paā¦. She sang a duet song and featured in the music video along with singer Shaan, which was composed by the trio of Gourov Dasgupta, Roshin Balu, and Shaan for YashRajFilms and Yfilms "love shots"..... Her voice has also featured in several jingles. Her song and music video 'palkon ke peeche' from the album 'Yaariyan' on Universal Music has garnered a fabulous response from music lovers ."
Taking this as a hint, NewsMeter searched for her profile on social media and found a post by her on Facebook clarifying that she is not the same Arpita Mukherjee who has been detained by the ED.
In a post, she wrote, "I AM "SINGER ARPITA MUKHERJEE". I am NOT the Arpita Mukherjee who has been detained by the ED. I have no connection with this case. The lady detained by ED is a Kolkata Tollywood actress. I am utterly surprised that people are confusing her with my profile when there is no similarity between us. But therein lies the problem with social media. People do not wait to verify facts before jumping the gun and grabbing an opportunity to malign or troll someone. This post is meant for all such "brilliant" minds !"
In another post, Mukherjee called out several news outlets including ABP News and News 18 Bangla for the misinformation and asked for a public acknowledgment of this mistake and an apology.
With this, it is clear that pictures of singer Arpita Mukherjee are being wrongly shared as Arpita Mukherjee who has been detained by ED.
