PM Modi celebrated his 70th birthday on September 17, 2020. While his admirers wished him a long and healthy life, his critics took the opportunity to attack and discredit him. One of the detractors, Namrata Datta, who goes by Twitter handle @cardinam, took to the microblogging website to peddle lies and concoctions about PM Modi. Except that the long thread of tweets posted by her was a verbatim copy of a year-old tweet thread a lesser-known Twitter user.
In the plagiarised Twitter thread which is replete with insinuations and fabricated claims, Datta sought to discredit PM Modi, trotting out the lies that his opponents have long used to tarnish his reputation. Datta raised aspersions on the authenticity of his birth certificate, his claim of subsisting his family by selling tea, his academic qualifications and other such things. Unsurprisingly, the thread was also shared by Bollywood filmmaker Anurag Kashyap.
Yesterday she posted a word to word plagiarized thread obv promoted by @anuragkashyap72 which is on PM @narendramodi ..so much so that it has the same typos & error. What’s worse when asked about the thread she says it was “after loads of reading & connecting the dots” LIES! pic.twitter.com/6uN6zZ0Oro
— Maya (@Sharanyashettyy) September 19, 2020
Furthermore, when a Twitter user questioned her about the thread, she shamelessly responded that “after loads of reading and connecting to the dots”, she could arrive at such a thread about PM Modi.
As the allegations of plagiarism were levelled against Ms Datta, Twitter users were merciless in exposing her, drawing attention to the past incidents where she had lied about meeting Sushant Singh Rajput, unabashedly stole tweets, made false claims about her degree and levelled serious allegations against the former CPI member Ritabrata Banerjee.
Namrata Datta’s lies about meeting SSR at Paris Airport picked up by media organisations
Just a couple of days after the actor Sushant Singh Rajput’s demise, Namrata Datta, who claims herself to be a PhD scholar at Cambridge University, started exploiting the death of the actor to garner cheap attention. On June 16th, Datta posted a tweet, claiming that she had met the ‘Kai Po Che’ actor at the Paris airport when ‘they both had hours to kill”.
On 16th June 2020, 2 days after the unfortunate demise of Sushant Singh Rajput, compulsive liar Namrata (@/candinam) who claims to be a PhD Scholar at Cambridge started talking about her ‘meeting’ with SSR at Paris Airport, which was soon picked by an array of media portals. pic.twitter.com/NHlG4tACGz
— Maya (@Sharanyashettyy) September 19, 2020
According to Datta’s tweet, Sushant Singh Rajput explained quantum physics to her at the airport and later they both shared a drink to celebrate their respective birthdays which allegedly fall within a gap of 5 days. Datta also added that they both had discussed DNA and X-Ray crystallography method in the course of their alleged discussion.
These unproven contentions were quickly lapped up by a host of media organisations, who in their eager alacrity to publish eulogising articles commemorating Sushant Singh Rajput and his mystical fascinations did not bother to verify the claims made by Namrata in her tweets.
Realising that her tweets and claims made about Sushant Singh Rajput had catapulted her to headlines of many media organisations, Datta persisted with her charade and continued fooling the emotionally devastated fans of the actor by sharing photoshopped images of herself with Sushant Singh Rajput. She started asserting that the photoshopped images were the photos clicked by Sushant Singh Rajput at the Paris airport.
What followed was nothing short of a circus of fictional lies by Namrata realising she was grabbing media headlines & was able to fool emotionally wrecked fans & also the media. She started claiming photoshopped pics as pics with SSR and those clicked by him. Fans called her out pic.twitter.com/UXbO3UzSWq
— Maya (@Sharanyashettyy) September 19, 2020
However, some of the observant followers were quick to identify that the image was a shoddily photoshopped one and called her out for the same.
Datta, a biologist doubled as a software professional
Coming back to her Twitter profile, Namrata, who has a penchant for weaving fictional tales, has mentioned in her Twitter bio that she is a ‘Molecular Biologist at Cambridge University’.
Back in 2017, Namrata was embroiled in another controversy where she was accused of stealing a mega-viral tweet.
“Spoke to my ex after 10 years. “Miss or Mrs.?” He asks Dr. I said,” Namrata had tweeted.
Back in 2017 @BuzzFeedIndia did a piece where she was caught lying. She Was Dragged For Stealing A Mega-Viral Tweet But She Doesn’t Think It’s Wrong.
— Maya (@Sharanyashettyy) September 19, 2020
She couldn’t prove or show her PhD even to them. https://t.co/85Q1moA3sY
When BuzzFeed India had contacted her and pressed about the allegations of stealing the tweet, she appeared unfazed saying there was nothing wrong about doing it as she simply felt that the tweet pertained to her life. However, when BuzzFeed India asked to furnish her degree, she evaded the request claiming she would be able to confirm her doctorate in a few months’ time. This was in February 2017.
A few months later, she was described as a software professional based out of Bengaluru by various Indian media organisations after she accused CPI leader M Ritabrata Banerjee of raping her by promising her marriage. Perhaps Namrata Datta is the first ‘doctor’ in the universe to moonlight as a software professional in Bengaluru as well as Molecular Biologist at Cambridge University.
Former CPI M member Ritabrata Banerjee accused Namrata Datta of extorting and intimidating him
Ms Datta rose to prominence in 2017 after filing an FIR against the former CPI M member Ritabrata Banerjee for allegedly raping her on the pretext of marriage. At that time, she was described as a Bengaluru-based software professional in an article by Hindustan Times.
Ritabrata Banerjee had then shared a complaint he had lodged with the police about Ms Datta, along with the Whatsapp chat, accusing her of extorting him. Banerjee alleged in his complaint that after he had helped Ms Datta with securing a loan from an SBI branch for her further studies, she continued making material demands of him until the ex-CPIM member expressed his inability to continue fulfilling her demands.
Hard Facts. “Manufactured Lies” will be combatted. Will not succumb to “politically aided” threats. pic.twitter.com/yGRqzPbne5
— Ritabrata Banerjee (@RitabrataBanerj) October 9, 2017
Banerjee had also added that he had made a payment of Rs 2.25 lakhs on July 20, 2017, after Ms Datta repeatedly pestered him for money claiming that she needed them for the treatment of lymphoma. He also mentioned that when he started distancing himself from her, she went to the extent of issuing threat calls and sending intimidating messages on Whatsapp.
In the screenshot of the Whatsapp chat attached by Banerjee, it can be seen that the sender of the message is threatening and trying to extort money from the former CPI M member.
However, Ritabrata was expelled from the party and West Bengal CBI summoned him after Namrata filed a complaint against him.
In addition to this, Datta had also lodged a complaint in 2017 against 4 individuals, accusing them of intimidation. She was then described by the Times of India report as a “software professional”. Datta had alleged in her complaint Archana Majumder, Durba Sen and two others had called her on different occasions and threatened her, at the behest of former Trinamool Congress MP Mukul Roy.
