Unrelated images passed off as cash, jewellery seized during raids at Lalu Prasad Yadav’s house
Social media users are sharing a collage of five images with the claim that it shows unaccounted cash and jewellery seized during the ED's raids at Lalu Prasad Yadav’s residence.
By Md Mahfooz Alam Published on 14 March 2023 10:36 AM GMT
(Screengrab source: Twitter)
Hyderabad: Social media users are sharing a collage of five images with the claim that it shows unaccounted cash and jewellery seized during the Enforcement Directorate’s (ED) raids at Lalu Prasad Yadav’s residence in the Railways land-for-jobs scam.
(Screengrab source: Twitter)
On 10 March, the ED conducted searches at 24 locations in the raids against Lalu Prasad’s family members in the land-for-jobs case. On 11 March, ED said Rs. 600 crores in proceeds of crime have been detected in the raids while an investigation is underway to unearth more investments made on behalf of Lalu Prasad’s family in real estate and other sectors.
Fact Check
NewsMeter found that two photos are from the raids in the alleged land-for-jobs scam, and three of them are unrelated.
Image 1
On performing a reverse image search of the first photo, we found it in a Hindustan Times report from 11 September 2022. It said the ED recovered cash worth around Rs. 18 crores in raids at six locations in Kolkata in connection with a money-laundering probe related to a mobile gaming application.
It also said that the mobile application was mostly used during the Covid-19 pandemic and duped several people. Nesar Ahmed Khan’s house at Garden Reach in southwest Kolkata was among the premises that were raided.
(Screengrab source: Hindustan Times)
Images 2 & 5
On performing a reverse image search, we found the second and fifth images tweeted by the official handle of the Enforcement Directorate (ED) on 6 March. It said unaccounted jewellery worth Rs. 5.51 crores and cash of Rs. 1.21 crores were seized in raids at 15 locations in Nagpur and Mumbai concerning the investment fraud by Pankaj Mehadia, Lokesh and Kathik Jain.
Images 3 & 5
A reverse image search of the third and fifth images led us to an 11 March tweet by the news agency ANI that carried both photos. As per the tweet, the images show unaccounted cash and jewellery recovered after the ED conducted searches at 24 locations in the Railways land for job scam.
We conclude that two pictures are related to the recent ED raids in connection with the alleged land-for-jobs scam and the other three are unrelated. Hence, the claim that the five photos show cash and jewellery seized during the raids at Lalu Prasad Yadav’s residence is misleading.
