A photo is being shared on social media claiming it as visuals of police personnel cleaning Mosques in West Bengal, under Mamata Banerjee as CM. Let’s verify the claim made in the post.
Claim: Image of police personnel cleaning Mosques in Mamata Banerjee governed West Bengal.
Fact: This image shared in the post shows an old photo of Telangana police personnel cleaning Panjesha Mosque in Bhainsa. As part of the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan programme in 2016, Adilabad district police cleaned temples and Mosques in their district. This photo has nothing to do with West Bengal. Hence, the claim made in the post is FALSE.
On reverse image search of the photo shared in the post, a similar photo is found in a Facebook post made by the news channel ‘AK News’ on 26 June 2016. This channel reported it as visuals of Police personnel cleaning Panjesha mosque in Bhainsa town in Adilabad district, Telangana on the occasion of Ramadan. Several social media users have shared similar photos in June 2016, mentioning it as the visuals of Adilabad district police cleaning Temples and Mosques as part of the ‘Swachh Bharat Abhiyan’ initiative. They can be seen here and here.
When we searched for more details using these keywords, we found that the ‘Telangana State Police’ had made a Facebook post on 20 June 2016, detailing the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan programme by the Adilabad district police. Telangana Police stated that Adilabad district police had conducted the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan programme by planting trees, cleaning temples and Mosques.
‘ETV Telangana’ news channel had published multiple videos reporting the Adilabad district police’s Swachh Bharat Abhiyan programme in the district. They can be seen here and here. In a video published by the ‘ETV Telangana’ news channel, we could see Nirmal police cleaning a temple. From all these pieces of evidence, it can be concluded that the photo shared in the post is old and not related to West Bengal, which is being shared with a misleading communal narrative.
To sum it up, 2016 Swachh Bharat Abhiyan visuals from Telangana is shared as police personnel cleaning Mosques in West Bengal.
