A collage of two photos showing All India Students Association (AISA) students consoling each other following a scuffle that took place with members of the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) on Ram Navami at Delhi's Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) campus, is viral with false claims that the former faked their injuries.
Many students at JNU were injured on Sunday after clashes broke out over the serving of meat at a hostel mess on Ram Navami. Students belonging to left-wing organisations have accused members of the ABVP of preventing non-veg food being served in the mess at the Kaveri hostel and beating up those who protested. Conversely, ABVP members have accused AISA and Students' Federation of India (SFI) students of trying to disrupt a havan which was being held on April 10, 2022.
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In the collage, the photo on the left shows a student, who is wearing an off white sleeveless top, bleeding profusely from the forehead and is held by another female student who is wearing a blue kurti with a white motif. The photo on the right shows the student in the blue kurti lying on a table and the student, in a sleeveless top, who looks uninjured, attending to her.
Both photos, in the sequence described above, are being shared by right-wing social media users claiming the students are faking their injuries.
FACT CHECK
BOOM found that the viral claim is false and that the order in which the photos are being shared by right-wing users online is actually the opposite of when they were taken.
The student seen in the sleeveless off white top is Akhtarista Ansari and the student in the blue kurti is Madhurima Kundu. Both are members of the All India Students Association (AISA) at JNU.
Akhtarista Ansari told BOOM that the ruckus started at around 8pm on Sunday at Kaveri hostel. She alleged that a large group of ABVP members were 'attacking' students and harassing female students sexually. BOOM could not independently verify the allegations of sexual harassment. Ansari said that Madhurima Kundu fainted during that time and that she attended to Kundu by giving her some water to drink.
Slightly afterward, ABVP members went outside and started throwing stones and mud pots inside, she alleged. Ansari claimed that she was within the hostel gate when a stone hit her on her head. Ansari later tweeted she was treated at All India Institute of Medical Sciences.
Madhurima Kundu took to Facebook to rubbish the claim made by the viral posts.
EXIF Data Shows Order Of Images Reverse In Viral Photos
BOOM was able to access both photos that were taken by another AISA student. The student sent screenshots showing the image properties. The screenshots show the time the photo was taken.
The photo where Kundu is seen lying on a table and is being attended to by Ansari was taken first at 8.15 pm on Sunday at Kaveri hostel. A board with 'Kaveri' written in green can be seen in the photo.
Meanwhile the photo of Ansari bleeding profusely from the head and held by Kundu was taken at 8.21 pm, 6 minutes later.
A collage showing the time each photo was taken can be seen below.