Savita Anand who is a member of Aam Aadmi Party's national social media team tweeted a video to claim that PM Modi has changed EVM in 200 Loksabha constituencies to win the election which he was losing earlier.

Her tweet reads: "Revealed in International Media - Modi has changed EVMs in 200 Lok Sabha seats to win the lost election! If this is true, then be prepared to come on the streets. There will be a big movement, against dictatorship". (roughly translated from Hindi).

We found that the video is produced by Tri-colour News Network and a longer version of the video was uploaded on Youtube on 16th May. You can watch the longer version of the video here:

Some people have replied to accuse her of hiring an actor from Fiverr (a freelance marketplace) to create this video. People have also pointed out that she is a Romanian who has a dummy company in the UK.

We compared the face of the two girls but found that they look different. We verified it using an online Face matching software to confirm that they are different.

About Tricolour News Network (TNN)

The Youtube channel of TNN was created on 12th Jan 2019 a few months before the Loksabha election. Almost all the videos are anti-BJP and most of them are titled as "Tsunami of Stings". As far as the anchor of the latest video titled "EVM Scam" is concerned this is the first video of the anchor for the channel.

The same video was uploaded on their website as well and the link was shared on Twitter and Facebook.

According to social media description, Tricolour News Network is an independent, UK based news publisher. On LinkedIn, we found two of their employees Diana Biciin who is the director of this company and Kristin Stein who is a TV Journalist.

The company’s address, as mentioned in publicly available records, is that of an agency, Companies Made Simple Group, which “offers business products and services to startup companies and small businesses.” Public records show that Tricolour News Network was incorporated as a company in London on November 28, 2018; the domain name (tnn.world) was registered on January 31, 2019. Another domain tricolourtv.com was registered on 11th Nov 2018.

Their Facebook page was created on 14th Jan which lists Diana Biciin as a team member. The Twitter account was also created in Jan this year.

Tricolour News Network was incorporated with just one shareholder and director, Diana Irina Biciin who is identified as a Romanian national. There is no contact number available for Biciin in publicly available records.

When we analysed the Facebook likes of Biciin, it raised suspicion whether her profile is real or not. Why a UK based woman has more interest in Indian politics & celebrities than that of UK.

Pages liked by Biciin on Facebook

Possible Link With Congress

If we look at the activity of Twitter handle it's a bit unusual. All their tweets are in favour of Congress & opposition and against BJP. The handle has re-tweeted and liked posts of various verified handles of Congress and its leaders which is very very unusual for any news publisher. All this gives us a hint that the handle is being managed by a member of Congress IT Cell but we couldn't find any proof.

Their website has contents related to Indian politics (mostly against the ruling BJP government) which is again very unusual for a UK based news publisher.

This is the same website that hosted the video “uninterrupted and uncut” of the press conference in London on January 21, 2019, which was attended by Congress leader Kapil Sibal where a US-based Syed Suja claimed the BJP had hacked EVMs to win the 2014 Lok Sabha election.  All allegations were dismissed by the Election Commission of India. Notably, Syed Shuja had claimed himself as an EVM hacker and a worker of ECIL but ECIL claimed that Syed Shuja was never a worker of the company.

In March, Congress and other Opposition parties had released a sting video showing an alleged BJP functionary purportedly exchanging scrapped notes after demonetisation on a commission of 40 percent. Kapil Sibal had informed that the sting video was downloaded from TNN's website.

When The Indian Express called the number mentioned on Tricolour’s Facebook page, a “Catherine” responded: “We had sent a team from Canada to carry out the (demonetisation) sting operations between January and April 2017.” Asked who had carried out the sting, Catherine replied: “I feel you are acting as your Prime Minister’s intelligence agency operative.”

Now the question is when the company was registered in November 2018 how they could have sent a team in 2017. Was this company functional with another name back then? We don't have any information. If they had recorded the video in April 2017, then why did they wait for so long and released the video just before a few weeks of the election? There are many answered question which points fingers towards the channel being a proxy of Congress Party.

Possible link with Pakistan

The Youtube channel of TNN had posted the first video about the July 27, 2015 attack in Gurdaspur on the Dina Nagar Police station in which an SP was among six killed by alleged militants. TNN claimed that the attack was an “operation mainly controlled by the NSA and PMO”. The second video uploaded on March 6 is also about Gurdaspur attack.

This is the exact narrative that Pakistan wants to create. However, the company is based in the UK and we couldn't find any substantial proof to link the channel with Pakistan.

Is TNN reliable?

Taking all the available evidence into consideration, TNN is more of a propaganda website rather than a news publisher. 

1. Many of their articles are in Hindi which is unusual for the UK based news publisher. Ideally, news publishers have a separate website for Hindi news but here it is mixed (possible if your target audience is Indian). Now the question is why a UK based media startup will first target Indian audience?

2. No mention of the author's detail in their article. Who is writing their articles, who is editing them? No information has been provided by TNN which is unusual for a credible media house.

3. The official Twitter handle regularly retweets and likes the tweet of Congress Party and its leaders which is again unusual for a credible media house.

Did PM Modi change EVMs in 200 Loksabha seats to win the election?

No such reports have been published by any Indian media. And TNN being an unreliable news website, the news can't be trusted. Moreover, the channel has not provided any source to back their claim.

Keeping every single detail in mind we can safely assume that the claim made by TNN is false. 

About the Anchor

The anchor in the viral video is Kristin Stein. We found her profile on Reflections Talent Agency’ website and compared the faces to come to this conclusion.

Note: The article was updated to include anchor's detail