Fact check: Viral letter by NSA Ajit Doval praising Kumbh efforts is fake [truth here]

Kumbh Mela in Haridwar made the headlines over the last few days due to a mass gathering amid deadly second wave of COVID-19, which has put the nation in a challenging situation. After widespread criticism and PM Modi's appeal for symbolic 'Kumbh Mela' to strengthen fight against COVID, the mass crowds withdrew. Even as the dust hasn't settled on the controversy, a new one has emerged and involved National Security Advisor Ajit Doval.

The claim

A viral letter had been doing the rounds on social media, claiming to be from NSA Ajit Doval, where he is appreciating the Uttarakhand government officials for successfully organising the Kumbh Mela in Haridwar. The letter dated April 20 was addressed to Chief Secretary Uttarakhand Om Prakash IAS and signed by Doval.

The letter says: "Kumbh Mela was successfully organized with the joint effort of all agencies and government departments and this will create a religious atmosphere in the country, create a discipline and promote the ideology of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh in future."

The letter was shared on Twitter by the official verified handle of Prashant Bhushan, which went viral on social media. Many users on Twitter reacted strongly against NSA's response to the Kumbh arrangement, but some users pointed out that the letter was indeed fake.

Fact check

International Business Times reviewed the letter, which appeared to be from NSA Doval. At first glance, the viral letter looks exactly like a legit one, but upon close inspection, we find many red flags. We tried tracing the letter number 3169361/NSA/21, but there's no record of it and it looks like a random bunch of numbers made to look like the official one. We also compared the handwriting in the viral letter as compared to previous official ones and they are not the same. The signature, however, is accurate in the viral letter.

Based on these observations, we report that the matter of the letter has been photoshopped onto one of the earlier letters issued by NSA Doval. In fact, there are chunks of sentences picked up from Doval's earlier letter to UP Chief Secretary Rajendra Tiwari, praising his efforts in maintaining peace and harmony after Ayodhya verdict. With some smart photoshopping skills, the miscreants managed to change the location to Kumbh Mela instead of Ayodhya and changed the date and recipient of the letter's name to Om Prakash.

In addition to that, ANI confirmed that the letter is fake citing government officials. In addition, Boom also debunked the letter to be fake based on the irregularities found in the morphed viral letter.

Hence, IBTimes has arrived at the conclusion that the viral Ajit Doval letter on the topic of Kumbh Mela is fake.