An old unrelated hospitalization image is falsely shared as that of Karnal doctor who ate cow dung - FACTLY
Sai Krishna Muthyanolla
December 16, 2021
A post with a photo is being widely shared on social media claiming that the person lying on the hospital bed is a doctor from Karnal who ate cow dung. Recently, in a viral video, a person who has been identified as Dr. Manoj Mittal from Karnal, Haryana was seen eating cow dung. Let us fact-check the claim made in the post.
Claim: Photo showing the Karnal doctor who ate cow dung being admitted to a hospital.
Fact: The person on the hospital bed is Bidhan Thapa who passed away in the US due to a very critical health condition. When Dr. Manoj Mittal, who was seen eating cow dung was asked about the viral post, he said that he is completely healthy and had not been hospitalised. Hence, the claim made in the post is FALSE.
When reverse image search is done on the image of the person on the hospital bed, a GoFundMe page with the same photo was found. The page had been created on 10 July 2017. According to its description, the person on the bed is Bidhan Thapa who passed away in John Hopkins Hospital in the USA due to a “very critical” health condition. The fundraiser was created to help the dead person’s wife to transfer the mortal remains to their home country, Nepal.
Recently, in a viral video, a person who has been identified as Dr. Manoj Mittal from Karnal, Haryana was seen eating cow dung. However, according to this video report, the person is not in an ICU hospital bed as claimed. When Dr. Manoj Mittal was asked about the viral post, he said that he was healthy and had not been hospitalized.
When the same photo of the person on the bed was shared with a claim that the person in the photo is Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, AFP had written a fact-check article in February 2021 debunking it.
To sum it up, an old unrelated image is falsely shared as that of Karnal doctor who ate cow dung being admitted to a hospital.