Sam Jawed, who goes by the name SamSays and handles SamJawed65 on Twitter, claimed several times that she (or he) is a co-founder of Alt News, a designation that has been removed from all possible resources. However, from time to time, there have been discussions about the identity of this person on social media platforms.
The last article that Sam Jawed wrote for Alt News was in January 2021.
Last she interacted with Alt News’ people on Twitter was on December 29, 2022, with Mohammed Zubair on his birthday. Zubair told her that her threads were missed on Twitter to which she replied, “There are a lot of other things to take care other than Twitter.”
However, while eulogies are written about Zubair and Pratik, there has hardly been any mention of Sam Jawed. Especially when she has been earlier identified as one of the co-founders. When documentaries are made or when ‘Nobel’ nominations are announced, Sam Jawed is conspicuously absent.
During the investigation into the identity of Sam Jawed, we found the profile of one, Sameena Ahmad, Managing Director, Corporate Affairs, of Alpen Capital, Dubai. The photograph used by Sam Jawed has striking similarities with Sameena Ahmad. The resemblance is striking.
This is the photograph used by Sam Jawed on Twitter and a photograph of Sameena Ahmad side-by-side. You can notice the similarities between the features.
Sameena’s profile on Alpen reads, “Sameena heads the Corporate Affairs function, responsible for Marketing, Public Relations and Administration across Alpen Capital group covering its offices in Middle East and India. She is also responsible for the industry research function that publishes Alpen Capital’s highly acclaimed industry research reports on various sectors across the GCC. Sameena has been with Alpen Capital for 12 years and has a total of 34 years of human resources/marketing experience in the financial industry in the UAE and India. In her previous assignment, she was an SVP of Human Resources at Mashreqbank. She was a faculty member at Xaviers Institute of Management, Bhubaneswar in India.”
Furthermore, when we checked different sources to find information about Sameena Ahmad, we found a Rocket Reach profile of Sameena with two email IDs mentioned. One was [email protected], and the second was [email protected]. Which makes one inclined to believe Sameena Ahmad, the Managing Director of Alpen Capital is the third cofounder of Islamist propaganda website Alt News.
We also found a phone number associated with a person named Sameena Ahmad. When we ran the number through TrueCaller, it had the email id mentioned as [email protected].
Sam Jawed’s curious case on social media
For years, netizens have tried to find out who Sam Jawed is. On July 14, 2022, during a court hearing of Alt News’ co-founder Mohammed Zubair’s bail, someone linked to Alt News living in Saudi Arabia was mentioned. Netizens curiously asked if it was Sam Jawed. Twitter user BefittingFacts asked, “Where is Alt News researcher @samjawed65 these days? She/he has not tweeted anything since 1st july. @free_thinker all good? Is she/he the same ‘living in Saudi Arabia’ mentioned in court today? Why thr is no transparency about ur researcher? What’s there to hide?”
Where is Alt News researcher @samjawed65 these days? She/he has not tweeted anything since 1st july. @free_thinker all good? Is she/he the same ‘living in Saudi Arabia’ mentioned in court today? Why thr is no transparency about ur researcher? What’s there to hide?@DelhiPolice pic.twitter.com/gAITwUdNtX
— Facts (@BefittingFacts) July 14, 2022
On May 20, 2021, activist and investigative journalist Vijay wrote a detailed thread on Sam Jawed.
When I have checked official data of directors in alt news’s parent company PRAVDA MEDIA FOUNDATION there are total 3 directors!
— Vijay Patel🇮🇳 (@vijaygajera) May 20, 2021
Pratik Sinha, his mother NIRJHARI MUKUL SINHA and MOHAMMED ZUBAIR!
There was one MURLIDHAR POKARDAS DEOMURARI who has left alt news on 23 Sep 2019! pic.twitter.com/vBxjVP9Nb1
He said that though Sam Jawed claimed to be co-founder of Alt News, her name did not appear in any documentation. Sam Jawed’s name was not mentioned in the list of directors of Pravda Media Foundation, the parent company of Alt News.
If so, than there is a direct connection why they have made false claim about #CongressToolKit & tried to prove that the documents were false!
— Vijay Patel🇮🇳 (@vijaygajera) May 20, 2021
With this proxy name, one of the director is also writes for congress newspaper National Herald, so obviously he or she must get payment pic.twitter.com/5HkWt9nHFc
Patel further said the ID could be in use as a proxy by one of the directors of the company. He further added how Sam Jawed wrote several reports for different publications including Congress’s mouthpiece National Herald, The Quint, The Wire, Scroll, Newslaundary, Newsclick and more.
obviously they are paying to him or her for it! All of these media names were in Greta’s toolkit!
— Vijay Patel🇮🇳 (@vijaygajera) May 20, 2021
So probably this is the way to get payments from soros and that’s why alt news’s name was in Greta’s toolkit too! pic.twitter.com/ygaGkKb7il
Replying to Vijay, OSINT The Hawk Eye wrote, “That’s pretty interesting. Every other writer/editor/co-founder has brief intro & background except Sam.”
That’s pretty interesting. Every other writer/editor/co-founder has brief intro & background except Sam. pic.twitter.com/u8NDuAOnxd
— The Hawk Eye (@thehawkeyex) May 20, 2021
Earlier, in 2017, a Twitter user while replying to Pratik Sinha alleged Sam Jawed was Teesta’s friend from Dubai. He wrote, “How abt askin ur Dubai Based hitwoman Sam Jawed (Teestas Pal) whose intelligence relies on Dam Achayan, to expose Venus role in Radia Tapes?”
Was Sam Jawed co-founder of Alt News?
Sam Jawed was mentioned as co-founder of Alt News by several portals including The Print and ScoopWhoop.
Though netizens have expressed doubt over Sam Jawed’s links to Alt News, we found a report in The Hindu from July 2017 that mentioned her. In that particular report, Mohammed Zubair’s identity was hidden as well. The report mentioned Pratik Sinha, an anonymous administrator of the ‘Unofficial Subramanian Swamy’ Facebook page and a person who goes by the name “Sam Jawed” as an electric trio.
When we checked Sam Jawed’s Twitter profile, we found that she started talking about Alt News on February 14, 2017. Alt News was founded on February 8, 2017.
On April 18, 2017, she shared her first piece on Alt News.
Her articles on the portal dated back to April 8, 2017.
Sam Jawed used to run a blog on Blogspot by the name “Critical Eye”. All the posts have been deleted from it but the archive can be accessed from here.
OpIndia has reached out to Sameena Ahmad to confirm if she is the same third ‘cofounder’ of Alt News. We shall update the article if we hear back from her.
