Daijiworld Media Network - Bengaluru
Bengaluru, Feb 4: News report on Bangalore Metropolitan Transport Corporation (BMTC) bus conductor Madhu NC clearing the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) Civil Service Prelims in June last year had become viral and won praises.
However, it is now revealed that the news is fake and the conductor lied about clearing the exam to BMTC as well as to media.
The fact check was done by Logical Indian. The Logical Indian team accessed a UPSC Notice dated January 14, 2020, which furnishes information about the candidates (names and roll numbers) who had qualified for the Personality Test (Interview) for selection to the Indian Administrative Service (IAS), Indian Foreign Service (IFS), Indian Police Service (IPS) and other Central Services (Group 'A' and Group 'B').
After careful scrutinization, team Logical Indian found that Madhu's name was not on the list, implying that he did not clear the exams. Further, the mark sheet that was shown by Madhu actually did not belong to him but someone else called Madhu Kumari.
The news praising the ‘grit and determination’ of the 29-year-old conductor was first published by Bangalore Mirror.
Editor of the newspaper Bangalore Mirror, Ravi Joshi, took to twitter to issue a clarification about the fake news. In a series of tweets, he said, "We've come to know that the BMTC bus conductor who claimed to have cracked the IAS Mains exam was lying. We have reason to believe that the roll number he showed us didn't belong to him. @bangaloremirror is taking down the story till it becomes clear why he lied to BMTC and us."
In a separate tweet, he added, "I would like to apologise to all our readers. It was such a great story of grit and determination that even the BMTC MD and all his seniors decided to help him crack the interview. Alas, it was too good to be true."