After the Allahabad High Court on Tuesday, September 1, granted bail to Dr Kafeel Khan, posts from a Twitter handle @dr_kafeel_ started gaining traction as netizens believed it to be the official account of the Gorakhpur based doctor.
Khan was booked under the National Security Act (NSA) for his speeches made during the anti-CAA protests in the Aligarh Muslim University and was arrested in January this year.
Following the decision by the top court, supporters of Khan engaged with the dubious Twitter account as it put out back to back tweets within a span of several hours.
"Asslam alaikum," reads the pinned tweet on the account while another says, "Countrymen, if fighting for your right is a crime, then I am a sinner. Thank you wholeheartedly for praying for me."
Asslam alaikum .
— Dr Kafeel Khan (@dr_kafeel_) September 1, 2020
The pinned tweet, so far, has received over 30,000 likes as well as more than 4,000 retweets and comments. "Welcome back sir. The HC has observed that your speech was intended to promote national unity," wrote one of the Twitter users in reply.
Fact-Check
As the activities on the said Twitter account seemed suspicious, we at International Business Times, India, set out to verify its authenticity.
The first aspect which caught our attention was that the account was created in January, the same month which saw the arrest of Khan. And as there were a lot of activities on the account over the next few months while Khan was lodged in a Mathura jail, it hints towards the possibility of the profile being a sham.
Furthermore, several people in the comments section have clearly dubbed it as a fake account and even pointed out that Khan's real account, which goes by the handle @realdrkafeelkhan, was suspended by Twitter a while back due to reasons unknown.
Besides, co-founder of fact-checking website Alt News Mohammed Zubair has also confirmed the viral Twitter account to be a fraud. "22k likes for a fake account," Zubair said in a tweet.
Thus, we hereby confirm that Twitter handle @dr_kafeel_ is not the official account of Dr Kafeel Khan and also appeal netizens to report the impostor.
