An audio clip has been widely circulating on social media and it has been attributed to Geeta Jain, an independent member of the Legislative Assembly of Mira Bhayandar in Maharashtra. The clip contains a woman’s voice advising people to not visit doctors or labs if they have COVID-19 symptoms as the government is trying to misuse the money set aside for tests.
The clip can be fully heard here:
It’s doing rounds on what’s app. @mybmc how true are the content? And if it’s true then what are you and state government doing. #JustAsking #Covid_19 #mirabhayander #GeetaJain pic.twitter.com/XdhZZ53xn3
— RDNA (@PostBox_67) July 24, 2020
The message was widely being circulated on WhatsApp as well:
FACT CHECK
Since the message was discouraging people to get tested, we detected a red flag. We Googled ‘Geeta Jain’, ‘COVID’ and found a Hindustan Times article from July 25, 2020, with the headline: ‘Imposters share fake audio clip of Mira-Bhayander MLA; case filed’
We also came across a Mumbai Mirror article that states that Geeta Jain herself has shared a video clarifying the claims.
On checking Geeta Jain’s Facebook profile, we came across that video. She can be watched and heard saying that the audio which went viral on July 10 was not shared by her and should not be circulated forward.
In view of our multiple levels of checks, we can conclude that this audio clip is fake.
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