In normal circumstances, intelligence agencies gather information regarding national security and terrorism but these days they are confronted with a new problem. The agencies are grappling with the issue of identifying the source of fake Intelligence Bureau (IB) reports predicting performance of various political parties in Punjab and Uttar Pradesh elections.

What makes it more difficult is that these reports are being circulated extensively on social media.

Two reports found on social media so far:

1. According to sources, at least two reports related to Punjab, Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections attributed to the IB were found to be fake. The IB is trying to ascertain the source of these reports and suspects a mischief behind it.

2. The two reports, which are purportedly predicting performance of various political parties, have been examined and described as not genuine. While one fake report shows victory for the BJP in UP and the other shows the Congress as a winner in Punjab.

3. IB officials said the agency doesn't follow the format as has been used in the two reports.

4. The fake UP election report is a map, which depicts a major victory for the BJP with 285 plus seats. The SP-Congress alliance has been given 65 plus seats followed by the BSP, which has been shown as getting 40 plus seats. Similarly, there is a report for Punjab elections, which shows 69 seats for the Congress, 31 for AAP, 16 for SAD-BJP combine.

5. The IB officials said the fake reports in circulation have "confidential" and "only for Home Ministry" written on them whereas normally the IB writes "Secret" only. Also the reports have been circulated to all the concerned departments and not just the home ministry.

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6. The sources added that according to norm, the IB prepares a report on elections but not like the ones being circulated on Whatsapp and other social media. The officials also said that genuine IB election reports are prepared during the elections but they normally focus on the sensitive areas and not the outcome of the elections itself.

7. There are several spelling mistakes in the reports like names of the parties have been mis-spelt. This doesn't normally happen in the IB reports as they are cleared for despatch after proper scrutiny.

8. In the Punjab elections report, the IB logo has been used on the top whereas the real IB normally doesn't carry logo on its reports. A genuine report also carries the intelligence report number but the fake reports in circulation don't have any such numbers.

9. In original reports, the word "secret" is used either on the top right side or bottom right side of the page. The name of the unit (for example internal security) and the name, designation of the officer who has issued the report is also mentioned in the end. However, the fake reports don't mention any such details.

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