When people say that 'you can be whoever you want to be', it is perhaps best to not take that literally.
Nisha Jindal -- a Facebook influencer of sorts with over 10,000 followers --who regularly engaged with 'fans' on the social media platform gave her followers a rather rude surprise on April 17. Jindal whose profile picture changes had regularly garnered comments such as "so.....sweet", "VERY Lovely Sweet picture Hai ji dear", "Beautiful pic" and "Breathtaking beauty" recently posted a picture that drew a very different set of reactions.
You see, Nisha Jindal is in reality a man named Ravi Pujar. "I'm in police custody, I am Nisha Jindal," read the caption of a picture of Pujar/Nisha posted on Facebook on the 17th.
Even as many joked about how the passage of time had not been kind to Nisha Jindal, and others lamented their broken hearts, many social media platform vented their ire. There were of course some users who claimed that they had known all along.
The question however is how Pujar pulled off this elaborate charade. More importantly, why would he do this in the first place?
According to an article by The Print, he did it for 'fun'. Reportedly, he had caught the eye of police officials after posting communal messages on the social media platform.
When the police began investigating Jindal's account, they were baffled by 'her' changing allegations and job profiles. “He got us confused because one day he would pose as a WHO adviser, then as a UN Security Council co-adviser, a scholar from Harvard University… and next day he would post photos of masks distribution,” the publication quoted Additional Superintendent of Police Pankaj Chandra as explaining.
IAS officer Priyanka Shukla took to Twitter to give further details.
"When Raipur police went to arrest Facebook user Nisha Jindal for inciting communal disharmony, they learnt that Ravi who had been unable to pass engineering for 11 years was actually Nisha," she wrote.
Coming back to Nisha's profile, we can't help but point out that there were many discrepancies that were missed by her followers. For instance, the various photos of 'herself' that caused many to go into complimentary raptures are of various celebrities. Her profile picture for example, is of Pakistani actress Mirha Pasha. An earlier display image had been Selena Gomez's photo. Hindsight may be 2020, but it must be pointed out that the women in these pictures look nothing like each other -- something her fans don't seem to have wondered about.
Her posts ranged from communal to amorous, interspersed with occasional photos with other people. While we haven't identified who these people are, reports suggest that Pujar had created six fake IDs to give the illusion of family members.
'She' also had an extensive list of professional skills, ranging from agronomist and archaeologist to physicist and weapons expert.
