A photo of a man with injury marks on his back is viral on social media with captions falsely linking him to the protests organised by applicants of Railway Recruitment Boards Non Technical Popular Categories (RRB NTPC) Exam in Prayagraj, Uttar Pradesh on Janaury 25.
BOOM found that the viral image has been on the internet since at least 2019, and the claims made with the picture are false and unrelated.
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The image is being shared in the backdrop of massive protests held in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar by students who alleged that the results of the 2021 RRB NTPC competitive exam are inaccurate. Students have resorted to blocking railway routes in the states with UP and Bihar police resorting to lathi-charging the protestors.
According to a report published in The Indian Express, the exam was conducted between December 28, 2020 and July 31, 2021 and result was announced on January 15, 2022. Following the violence, the exams stand postponed as of now.
Meanwhile, reporting about the protests in its January 28 issue, the Prayagraj edition of Hindi daily Dainik Jagran used the image of an injured man with a Hindi caption translating to 'Baliya's Rajnish Bharati injured at the hands of police'. Jagran has credited the photo to 'relatives'.
(Hindi: पुलिस की पटाई से घायल बलिया के रजनीश भारती - साभार स्वजन)
Hindi daily Navbharat Times reporter Anup Pandey also tweeted the image on January 27. He, however, deleted the tweet later. Click here to see the archived tweet.
Several users also posted the image on Facebook with a Hindi caption translating to 'Why do you need a job. Development of Kashi and Mathura is still pending'.
(Hindi: नोकरी ले के का कीजियेगा। अभी काशी मथुरा बाकी है।)
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Fact Check
BOOM did a reverse image search on Google and Yandex and found that the image has been in circulation on social media since at least July 2019.
We found that some Bangladeshi Facebook pages had shared the same image along with another photo showing injuries on the leg of the youth, on July 17, 2019.
A caption with the post in Bangla translates to 'Falling in love is easy. But surviving from Girl's parents is not easy. Islam prohibits Zina, illicit sexual relations. It means having an affair in Bangla. If all, who are engaged could be beaten by Girl's parents like him, all boys and girls would have been noble'.
See archived posts here and here.
BOOM Bangla had earlier debunked a viral claim that used the same image in March 2020. Back then the image was shared with false caption claiming that a youth was beaten up by cops in Rajasthan while he was out for buying medicine for his mother during lockdown.
BOOM could not independently verify the origin of the image.
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