'Hunting season.' Anand Mahindra busts fake news, threatens legal action against 'fabricated' quote

For Anand Mahindra, it seems to have been a weekend of busting fake news. Hours after highlighting a fabricated news report on Friday about his crypto investments, the business tycoon again raised a red flag. On Sunday, Mahindra shared a screenshot of a quote that has been wrongly attributed to him. Terming it as "completely fabricated", he also warned of legal action.

The Padma Bhushan awardee posted a collage of the quote, along with two memes as well. The quote that was falsely attributed to him read: "An average Indian man spends his days following women on social media, putting his hopes into sports teams and leaving his dreams in the hands of a politician that doesn't care."



The first meme that he posted is a picture of the industrialist himself along with a caption: "I never said that". The second is a still from the film 'Jolly LLB' in which actor Arshad Warsi says "Kaun hain ye log? Kahan se aate hain (Who are these people? Where do they come from?"

The screenshot posted by Mahindra shows that the quote was uploaded on an Instagram page called "start_upfounder".

Mahindra, who has a Twitter following of over 8.5 million, called it the "hunting season on the Internet" while sharing the fake quote. "As a colleague told me: 'It looks like it's hunting season on you with miscreants on the internet'," the 66-year-old, said while sharing the quote.

Earlier on Friday evening, he had flagged a news report claiming his latest investment in cryptocurrencies has left "banks terrified" and "experts in awe". The fake news piece on the website blastheincome.club - claiming to be sourced by The Times Of India - said that the top boss had found a 'wealth loophole' that can make investors a millionaire in three to four months.

An alarmed Mahindra Group Chairman immediately took to Twitter to report this as fake news. The 66-year-old businessman said that someone had informed him about this online article and he felt it was necessary to call out this fabricated and fraudulent piece that takes fake news to a new level.

"I need to make people aware that this is completely fabricated & fraudulent. Takes fake news to a new level," he wrote alongside four screenshots from the fake piece.

The billionaire also said that the fake article would've been highly amusing if it wasn’t so unethical and dangerous.

Last year in April, a similar thing had happened with Tata Trusts Chairman Ratan Tata. The philanthropist took to social media to alert his 10.2 million followers on Twitter. Tata urged people to always verify news sources rather than trusting media that circulates on WhatsApp or other social media platforms.

"If I have something to say, I will say it on my official channels," he had stated.

"My picture alongside a quote does not guarantee me having said it, a problem that many people face," he wrote in another post.