CLAIMSeveral social media accounts are posting an image showing several liquor bottles to claim that the BJP-JD(U) alliance in
Bihar is distributing free liquor ahead of assembly elections to influence voters.
Facebook user Yahya Rahmani posted the photo attacking NDA alliance in Bihar.
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RJD and
Tejaswi Yadav supporter Pooja Sekher Yadav also posted it.
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The text accompanying this image asks voters to not get swayed by this ‘poison’.
The image also found its way onto Twitter.
TRUTHThe image is from
Thailand
, where a man named Johnny distributed free liquor kits along with other relief material to people affected by September 2019 floods in Ubon Ratchathani province.
The image has nothing to do with Bihar.
VERIFICATION AND METHODOLOGYUsing simple reverse-image search, we found several Thai blogs that carried the same image.
Using ‘google translate’, we translated one such
blog (published on September 24, 2019) to English.
The blog talks about a man called Johnny who did a lot of charitable work in the flood-ravaged Ubon Ratchathani province of Thailand in 2019. He distributed free liquor to alcoholics so that they could survive their addiction.
The blog has several pictures of Johnny doing relief work post floods. More pictures of Johnny distributing liquor can be found
here.
The flood situation in Thailand in 2019 was quite bad. As per a
report published on UNICEF’s official website on September 20, 2019,
UNICEF
staff was deployed at Ubon Ratchathani province, to meet with families and communities, in addition to local government officials and NGOs which were delivering emergency assistance, to assess the needs of children and families in the northeastern provinces of Thailand, which was largely affected by the impact of the flooding.
VERDICTTimes Fact Check has found that an old image from Thailand is being circulated with false claims of BJP-JD(U) distributing free liquor to Bihar electorate ahead of polls.