The infox was taken up by numerous accounts on social networks and has hundreds of thousands of views. Against a backdrop of diplomatic quarrel between Canada and India, a falsified wanted notice, in the name of the Indian Minister of the Interior, Amit Shah, has been distributed on the internet since the beginning of November. Many Indian sites have proven that it was fake, but this false report continues to circulate on the networks.
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The publication of this false “ red notice » of Interpol, established on behalf of the Indian minister, comes at a time when relations between the countries have been strained since Canadian police implicated India in the 2023 assassination in Vancouver of a separatist leader Sikh.
Also readIndia: Amit Shah, the formidable Interior Minister accused by Canada
On the published visual, we can read that Canada is looking for “ Amit Anilchandra Shah » for his alleged participation in “ a criminal conspiracy “. It is asked to “ anyone with information on this supposed suspect to contact Interpol “. The logo of this international organization, in charge of criminal investigations throughout the world, is perfectly reproduced, and the famous red search sheet looks very similar to what you can find in photos on the internet when you type ” red notice Interpol » in a search field.
On its official websitethe organization specifies: “ A Red Notice is a request to law enforcement agencies around the world to locate and provisionally arrest a person pending extradition, surrender, or similar legal action. It is based on an arrest warrant or a court decision issued by the judicial authorities of the requesting country. Member countries apply their own laws to decide whether to arrest a person. »
A fake Interpol file
On the form, the “requesting” country is therefore Canada. It is written in full. But on closer inspection, we see that, on other Interpol notices, the name of the country behind the searches is written in capital letters. Conversely, the surname of the person sought appears in capital letters, whereas on Amit Shah’s alleged file, everything is written in lower case.
The photo in the wanted poster is simply a reproduction of an official portrait, reversed right-left. It should be noted that the presentation on social networks of the famous red notices has changed. In 2019, we actually found on Facebook wanted notices of this color, but since then, these cards no longer have the same shape or the same colors. Today, the suspect appears on a blue background with the words “ interpol red notice “.
After these visual comparisons, we tried to find Amit Shah’s name in the publicly accessible Interpol database. Eight profiles whose name contains “sha” have been identified, but in no case do these surnames correspond to the Indian minister.
This cross-checking work allows us to affirm that the Indian Minister of the Interior is not wanted by Canada, contrary to what many Indian or foreign accounts assert which, in their narratives, seek to harm the image of this close to Narendra Modi which embodies the hard branch of Indian nationalism.
An attempt at disinformation to isolate Indian power
Other comments seek, it seems, to deliberately amplify the level of tensions between Canada and Indiaby incriminating a senior BJP official, perhaps in order to put pressure on the Indian government.
Canada is home to the largest Sikh community outside of India and has a large number of activists in favor of an independent Sikh state, strongly opposed by the authorities in New Delhi.
Two weeks ago, Justin Trudeau and the Canadian federal police had alleged that there were “ clear clues » of India’s involvement in the murder of Sikh activist, Hardeep Singh Nijjaras well as in a vast campaign of intimidation and violence against independence activists on Canadian soil. A sign of tensions, last month, New Delhi expelled the ambassador and several Canadian diplomats, immediately followed by Ottawa.