As the Chinese coronavirus pandemic rages on, social media is flooded with requests of essentials such as medicines, hospitals, beds and oxygen. While everyone is doing their bit to help ease the suffering, some seem to have misused the platform to either spread fake requests or dupe some people of their money promising medicines in return.
Amongst many who have been very vocal about helping out people amid the crisis has been Bollywood actor Sonu Sood. However, recently he was accused of taking credit for arranging plasma for a COVID patient when he has not done so.
A Twitter user, named Umey Abhishek Rajput (@Umey_Abhishek), took to Twitter on 3rd May, 2021 to seek help in arranging plasma for a Covid-19 positive patient named Reena Solanki. He had shared details such as the name and location of the hospital, the telephone numbers of the patient attendees, and the blood group of the patient. He had also tagged actor Sonu Sood in his tweet.
About 12 hours later on Tuesday, Sonu Sood responded to his message for help. He informed the Twitter user that he had arranged plasma for the patient named Reena Solanki. In a tweet, the actor said, “Plasma is arranged. Speedy recovery.”
An hour after Sonu Sood claimed to have arranged for the plasma, the same Twitter user debunked his claims. “Sorry, Sonu Sood sir, but family has no information for (about) arrangement of plasma,” he clarified.
While responding to another tweet by a user named Komalgupta1970, who asked him to find a more credible and trustworthy source, Umey Abhishek Rajput said, “It’s arranged, by the way thank you.”
When OpIndia reached out to the attendee, we were informed that the patient had undergone two rounds of plasma therapy. On being asked whether Sonu Sood arranged for it, he outrightly denied any help received from the Bollywood actor. “We had to arrange plasma our own,” he emphasised.
Sonu Sood claims to ‘prophetically’ arrange bed for a deceased Covid-19 patient
In another case, Sonu Sood claimed to have arranged a hospital bed for a patient who had succumbed to Coronavirus infection. On Sunday (May 9) night, a Twitter user (@ManojWorker) tweeted about an urgent requirement of a hospital bed for a 54-year-old patient named K Ravindran. While responding to the tweet at 9 am in the morning, Sonu Sood claimed, “Sometimes it’s good to be awake at night. Got you a bed at Excel Care hospitals.”
A popular Twitter user, Shruthi Thumbri pointed out that the patient had passed away in the night at 3 am. “On 9 am, you are tweeting and saying, “Got you a bed at excel care hospitals. hmmmm,” she pointed the logical fallacy in the actor’s statement.
She even shared an audio recording saying that the patient’s caretaker confirmed that no bed was made available by Sonu.
Hadd Hai!! 🤷
— Shruthi Thumbri 🇮🇳 (@Shruthi_Thumbri) May 9, 2021
Confidence ho to Sonu sood jaisa hona chahiye!
Aur kitna girna chahte ho Bhai ? 🥺
This is second round of discussion with patient's relative!
Here's the video with subtitles, Listen and decide! 🚶🚶
CC: @BengaluruSOS https://t.co/sN1vloAxNO pic.twitter.com/eTRcoRYPq3
On being faced with criticism, Sonu Sood said, “Had got him at bed last night at 12 am and just got to know he breathed his last at 3:30 am last night. Life is unfair. May his soul rest in peace.”
However, there are still things that don’t add up. Popular satirist ‘The Skin Doctor’ pointed out how the arrangement of bed at 12:00 midnight would not add up if the request itself came up at 1 AM. He tweeted, “He asked for your help through a tweet at 1:04 am. How did you get him a bed at 12 am? Full 1 hour before he actually asked for your help! How?”
Another Twitter user, Scar, sarcastically questioned the authenticity of his claims. “Got him bed an hour before his tweet, time Machine Sonu Sood,” he tweeted.
Got him bed an hour before his tweet, time Machine Sonu Sood 🙏
— Dr. Scar (@YourRishbh) May 9, 2021
After multiple media reports and social media posts on how Sonu Sood was helping out migrants go back home last year amid the nationwide lockdown, Sood had written an autobiography, ‘I am no no messiah’.
