DigitEye India Fact Checkers
A visual showing a photo of Tata Group chairman Ratan Tata’s picture with another photo of an armored bus is making the rounds on social media with a claim that the industrialist, also known for his philanthropic activities, has recently donated the bullet-proof and bomb-proof buses to the Indian Army. See the post shared on Facebook here.
It has been shared on social media here and here.
FACT CHECK
When Digiteye India team checked with the Google Reverse Image Search, the results showed that the particular bus was provided to the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) by the Hyderabad-based metal manufacturing group, Mishra Dhatu Nigam Limited (MIDHANI) in 2017.
It was duly acknowledged by CRPF in a tweet on September 7, 2017. The body of these buses was made by Tata Motors, but reinforced as fully armoured vehicles were provided by MIDHANI, which is a Public Sector Undertaking (PSU) under the Ministry of Defence, Government of India.
Armored Bus and Bhabha Kavach, light weight BP jacket manufactured under #MakeInIndia by MIDHANI handed over to DG CRPF today. pic.twitter.com/QTnWLdCquc
— 🇮🇳CRPF🇮🇳 (@crpfindia) September 7, 2017
The tweet read:“Armored Bus and Bhabha Kavach, lightweight BP jacket manufactured under #MakeInIndia by MIDHANI handed over to DG CRPF today.” Further, MIDHANI Limited in its annual report 2017-18, confirmed this as shown below:
The bulletproof bus was designed by MIDHANI mainly for use in Jammu and Kashmir. In addition, the MIDHANI Limited also gifted the CRPF with Bhabha Kavach (light bullet-proof jacket) and some weapons. Hence, the claim was false.
However, Tata Motors did manufacture and gifted only one bus to the CRPF later in 2019. After the deadly Pulwama attack on CRPF jawans in February 2019, the Tata Group gifted the jawans with one bullet-proof bus as reported here and shared on Instagram here.
Claim: Tata Group chairman Ratan Tata donated bullet-proof and bomb-proof buses recently to the Indian Army .
Conclusion: FALSE. These buses were provided by Mishra Dhatu Nigam Limited (MIDHANI) to the CRPF in 2017.
Rating: Misrepresentation — 
