Update (16 January 2025):
Another photo, purportedly showing a banner of former Chief Minister of Delhi, Arvind Kejriwal, erected outside Tihar Jail, is widely shared on social media platforms (here, here, here, and here). In this article, let us verify the authenticity of this photo.
A reverse image search on the viral photo led us to several news reports about Tihar Jail (here, here, here, here, and here) that contained a similar photo (the original version). Additionally, we found the same photo, as reported in these news articles about Tihar Jail, on the stock image website Getty Images. According to the description provided on the Getty website, this photo was first published on 04 October 2006 by India Today. From this, it is clear that the original photo has been edited to mock Kejriwal ahead of the Delhi Assembly elections 2025. The following collage shows the difference between the viral photo and the original one.
Published (10 January 2025):
Social media is abuzz with the photo (here, here, and here) of the gate of Tihar Jail, where a banner of former Chief Minister of Delhi Arvind Kejriwal can be seen. The text on the banner reads ‘Kejriwal Ayenge,’ which translates to ‘Kejriwal will come.’ Let’s verify the authenticity of this photo through this article.
Claim: Photo shows Arvind Kejriwal’s banner erected outside the Tihar Jail gate with the message ‘Kejriwal Aayenge’.
Fact: This is a digitally edited photo. The original version of this photo existed on the internet for almost four years. There are no news reports about such banners erected outside the Tihar Jail. Hence, the claim made in the post is False.
To check the veracity of the viral claim, we performed a reverse image search using the viral photo. This search led us to many news reports (here, here, and here) that contained the original version of this photo.
However, these reports about Tihar Jail did not contain the Kejriwal banner seen in the viral photo. The oldest among these reports that used the original photo is from June 2021, a news report on the vaccination rate of Tihar jail inmates. The following collage shows the difference between the viral photo and the original one.
Additionally, through a keyword search, we learned (here and here) that the banner portion seen in the edited viral photo is a cropped version of a photo posted by the Aam Aadmi Party(AAP) on their social media handles. In August 2024, The AAP launched a campaign titled ‘Kejriwal Aayenge’. They posted pictures of banners erected across Delhi on social media(here and here) during that time. A portion of the banner from these photos is cropped and used to create the viral edited image.
Furthermore, we searched the internet to check if any banners were recently erected outside the Tihar Jail to mock Kejriwal. However, we did not find such reports.
To sum up, an edited photo is shared as visuals of Arvind Kejriwal’s banner erected outside Tihar jail.
