Fact check | Viral screenshot shows Ajit Pawar's death was updated on Wikipedia hours before Baramati crash

After the tragic plane crash, which led to the untimely death of Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar, murmurs of a conspiracy surfaced. This conversation was not confined to the political fraternity but went beyond the realms. One such theory surfaced online, where a screenshot of Pawar’s Wikipedia page showed his death was updated on the website hours before the incident took place. This raised eyebrows and cemented some belief around there being foul play.

What led to the online theory

A screenshot of Pawar’s Wikipedia page, updated hours before his death, has been circulating. Discussions of which have not stopped ever since. Here are likely possibilities that could have led to this deduction: The website is an online data library, which registered users can edit. It usually hosts confirmed news and event-related information, but there have been isolated episodes where data has been misleading or altered.

Wikipedia timeline vs time zones

Coming to Maharashtra Deputy CM’s death and the time of updation: Wikipedia follows UTC, Coordinated Universal Time, which is five hours and 30 minutes behind IST (Indian Standard Time). For instance, 10:30 AM IST is 5:00 AM UTC, which could be the reason behind the confusion which sparked the online chatter.

The timestamp difference across time zones could have been the culprit in this case, as conspiracy theories are already fanning speculation

First guess: It's edited

Even in the world before AI, our first guess about an image doing the rounds online would be that it's edited. And this could also be a similar case of editing. The date in the image appears as January 27, which is a day before the incident, and the year entered is ‘20266’. Clearly, it seems like someone was in a hurry.

At the time of publishing, the page has logged in correct information as per initial findings.

Murmurs of foul play

On Wednesday (Jan 28), after the disastrous crash claimed Pawar’s life, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee issued a statement. “I demand a proper investigation under the supervision of the Supreme Court. We have trust only in the Supreme Court and no other agency,” she said in a video.

Offering condolences to the bereaved family, she highlighted that all agencies have been completely compromised, and so the case needs intervention by the apex court.

Putting an end to these unconfirmed reports, Nationalist Congress Party (SCP) chief Sharad Pawar issued a statement saying, his nephew’s death was "purely an accident" and should not be "politicised."

In his video statement, the veteran leader said, "Ajit Pawar's untimely death is a massive shock to Maharashtra. Today, the state has lost a capable and decisive leader. The loss that has occurred cannot be compensated, but not everything is in our hands.”

“I wasn't planning to come before the media today, but I learned that some media outlets have taken a stance from Kolkata suggesting that there is some politics behind this accident. But there is no politics in this; it is purely an accident. The agony of this death is felt by Maharashtra, by all of us. Please do not bring politics into this. That's all I have to say,” he added.

Tragic incident that claimed Ajit Pawar's life:

Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister’s aircraft met with a tragic accident at the time of landing in his stronghold, Baramati. A trip to the region after his victory in the recently concluded election led to his death along with four others on board, which included the pilots, a flight attendant, and Pawar’s security personnel.

At the time of landing, the aircraft, Learjet 45XR, a twin-engine light business jet, which took off at 8:10 AM from Mumbai and was scheduled to land at 8:50 AM, crashed. Onlookers' accounts from around the crash site said that the flight was engulfed in flames.