On the day of the polling of the Phase 3 Lok Sabha elections, a letter addressed by an organisation named Association of Sunni Muslims is being shared on social media platforms.
What are the contents of the letter?
"The Association of Sunni Muslims (Dubai) announces full financial support, including ticket booking and reimbursement for already booked tickets, for Muslims participating in the Indian elections on May 7 in Karnataka and other states. The objective is to defeat fascist forces and restore the Indian National Congress, which is a true friend of Muslims, to power in these elections." (sic.)
The letter comes on a day people in Karnataka are will be voting.
(We have refrained from adding archives so as not to give out people's personal information.)
A query regarding the letter was received on The Quint's WhatsApp tipline number.
Is this true?
The purported letter is fake as we could not find any organisation of the said name or any news reports to back the contents of the letter. Additionally, the address and contact details mentioned in the letter also turned out to be fake.
How was it discovered?
At first, we ran a keyword search using the contents in the letter, however, search results did not yield any credible results. We also looked for the organisation's name but did not find any based in Dubai, United Arab Emirates (UAE).
To verify further, we looked up the address (#2-11th Street Khalid Bin Waleed Road Plot No. Umm Hurair One Dubai United Arab Emirates) mentioned in the letterhead on Google Maps. The results showed us the Consulate General of Pakistan in Dubai listed under that address.
Apart from this, we contacted the three numbers listed under the following names: Mohammed Fayaz (For Hubli), Ibrahim Bhatkal (For Karwar) and Firoz Hidaytullah (For Shimoga). Out of three, two people replied to The Quint and clarified that they had no knowledge of the said organisation and were not the people which are mentioned in the letter. One of the numbers is listed as a business account on messaging platform, WhatsApp. It also had an Instagram account in their WhatsApp description.
Dallmayr is a German catering and coffee company.
Conclusion: The purported letter is fake and has gone viral at the time of polling in Karnataka.
This story was originally published by The Quint as a part of the Shakti Collective. Except for the excerpt, the story has not been edited by The News Minute staff. The original story can be found here.