A photograph of a man has been shared on social media with the claim that he is “the owner of Himalaya Ayurvedic products, Mohammed Menal”. The man is being accused of donating 10% of his income to “jihadists”. Twitter user Bharat Sanghvi, who is followed by prime minister Narendra Modi and home minister Amit Shah, has tweeted the photo with the accompanying claim.
Twitter user Akash RSS also shared the post.
A handle @Read_Bannaji made a more generalised statement. He wrote that Himalaya Drug Company should be avoided by all Hindus since its founder Mohammed Menal is a Muslim and Muslims donate 10% of their income to “terrorists”.
[Hindi tweet – “सभी हिंदुओ से निवेदन है देशहित में हिमालयन कंपनी का बहिष्कार कीजिये क्यूँकि मित्रों इसका मालिक मोहम्मद मेनाल (मुस्लिम) है…और मुस्लिम अपनी कुल आय का 10% जेहाद करने वालों को दान करता है॥”]
FACT-CHECK
A reverse-image search of the man’s photograph reveals that he is not the founder of Himalaya Drug Company. A 2016 article in The Economic Times identified him as Philipe Haydon, the CEO of the company.
The founder of Himalaya Drug Company is not Mohammed Menal but Mohammad ‘Manal’. The company website states that ‘M Manal’ found the company in 1930 in Uttarakhand’s Dehradun.
Manal passed away in 1986. Therefore, the claim that he gives away 10% of his income to “jihadists” does not hold water.
Moreover, Himalaya Drug Company called out the misinformation on Twitter.
— Himalaya India (@HimalayaIndia) March 13, 2020
A photograph of the CEO of Himalaya Drug Company has been used to falsely claim that he is the founder, Mohammed Manal, who donates a part of his income to fund terrorism.
Print
Pooja Chaudhuri | Radio Free (2020-03-16T14:20:28+00:00) Fake messages claiming Himalaya founder funds terrorists viral on social media. Retrieved from https://www.radiofree.org/2020/03/16/fake-messages-claiming-himalaya-founder-funds-terrorists-viral-on-social-media/
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