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  • FAKE ALERT: News of Hindu monk infecting 300 people with coronavirus is fake
This story is from May 5, 2020

FAKE ALERT: News of Hindu monk infecting 300 people with coronavirus is fake

FAKE ALERT: News of Hindu monk infecting 300 people with coronavirus is fake
Key Highlights
  • Journalist and “activist against Islamophobia” Ali Sohrab shared a tweet by some Abdul Kalam with screengrab of a Hindi news clipping doing making false claims about Hindu priest infecting 300 people with coronavirus.
  • Press Information Bureau (PIB) Rajasthan took to Twitter to call out the fake news report.
CLAIM
Screengrab of a Hindi news clipping doing rounds on social media platform Twitter claims that a Hindu saint’s chillum made 300 people ‘Covid-19 positive’ in Jaipur.
According to the news report, a Hindu priest living in a temple with other priests in the Transport Nagar area of Jaipur created an entire chain of coronavirus cases in the city.
"One of the Covid-positive monks in Jaipur's temple spread coronavirus to devotees visiting the temple and others through his habit of smoking chillum,” states the news report.
According to the report published on April 25, 2020, the Hindu priest was habitual of smoking and used to sell milk. The report also says that after he tested positive for coronavirus, priests living with him and families who bought milk from him have been quarantined.
tweet screenshot

Journalist and “activist against Islamophobia” Ali Sohrab shared the news clipping tweeted to him by a Twitter user Abdul Kalam.

Another Twitter user by the name of Arunima shared a video clip from a Hindi news outlet making same claim.

TRUTH
The claim is false.
Press Information Bureau (PIB) Rajasthan took to Twitter to call out the fake news report.
Using hashtag #PIBFactCheck, PIB Rajasthan tweeted, “A news portal "News Jharkhand" has claimed that the corona infection has spread to 300 people due to the presence of a hermit in the Transport Nagar area of Jaipur. According to the district collector of Jaipur, there is no veracity of the published news and no such incident has taken place.”

PIB Jharkhand corroborated the same.

VERDICT
Times Fact Check has found that the claim of a Hindu priest infecting 300 people with coronavirus in Jaipur is false.
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