Image of a CISF soldier injured in a langur attack is passed off related to an attack by TMC worker - FACTLY
Sai Krishna Muthyanolla
April 14, 2021
A post accompanying the image of an injured CISF soldier is being shared across social media platforms with a claim that the soldier has been attacked by TMC workers. Through this article let’s fact-check the claim made in the post.
Claim: Image of CISF soldier injured in an attack by TMC workers.
Fact: The image actually shows a CISF soldier who got injured in a langur attack while he was on duty at the CISF camp at Bhimakanali in Dhanbad, Jharkhand. A Hindi regional news agency reported the same. The image has nothing to do with poll violence which took place in West Bengal’s Cooch Behar. Hence the claim made in the post is FALSE.
The same image was shared by few BJP leaders on their social media accounts alleging TMC workers attacked CISF soldier. These posts can be seen here.
However, a reverse image search of the photo in the post led us to a Hindi regional news article dated 10 April 2021 which reported the same image. As per this article, the image shows ASI SP Sharma, who got injured in a langur attack while he was on duty at the CISF camp at Bhimakanali in Dhanbad, Jharkhand.
India Today contacted CISF sub-inspector Pradeep Kumar in Dhanbad who said that ‘it is ASI Sharma in the picture, who was attacked by a group of langurs on April 9 at around 6.30 pm. At that time, Sharma was posted at the BK-2 area at Baghmara’s Bharat Coking Coal Limited plant’. By all these, we can confirm that the CISF soldier shown in the image is injured in a langur attack but not in an attack by TMC workers.
In view of the poll violence which took place in Cooch Behar’s Sitalkuchi, misleading posts like these are being shared across media platforms
To sum it up, the image of a CISF soldier injured in a langur attack is passed off as if he is injured in an attack by TMC workers.