The Chief Minister of West Bengal, Mamata Banerjee, recently suffered an injury to the head due to a fall at her home (here and here). Two images purportedly depicting Ms. Banerjee before and after her fall are doing rounds on social media. The claim being propagated is that the injury, initially at the centre of her head, has apparently shifted its spot in the subsequent image featuring a bandaid, meaning she faked her injury. This article aims to fact-check this viral claim.
Claim: These images indicate Mamata Banerjee faked her recent injury in March 2024.
Fact: The two images in question belong to two separate incidents of Banerjee’s injury. The first image is from her recent fall at home on 14 March 2024, whereas the second one dates back to January 2024, when she received a minor head injury in a car accident. Therefore, the viral claim is rated as False.
Our fact-checking process was initiated with an internet search for recent pictures of Mamata Banerjee after she was discharged from the hospital following her injury. This search led to numerous news reports (here, here, and here) featuring images of the Chief Minister with a type of head bandage distinct from the one in the viral photo.
Further inquiry revealed that the viral photo showing Banerjee with a bandaid sticker on her head is from an incident in January 2024, where she was injured in a car accident (here, here, and here).
A video report uploaded by ABP Live (abpanandatv) shows Banerjee with the same bandage placed on the left side of her head. The video also depicts her wearing the same shawl and holding a microphone in a way similar to the viral photo. This confirms that the viral photo is from this earlier incident, not from the recent injury of the Bengal Chief Minister.
To sum up, the claim that Mamata Banerjee faked her injury is false. The images belong to two separate instances of her sustaining injuries, and they are not related to the same incident.
