Unrelated old photo from Madhya Pradesh shared as 25 students caught making explosives in Allahabad University - FACTLY
Sai Krishna Muthyanolla
April 28, 2022
A photo is being shared on social media claiming that 25 students from the Allahabad University in Uttar Pradesh were red-handedly caught while manufacturing explosives in their hostels. This post claims that all the mainstream media news channels have not covered the news as none of the accused belong to the Muslim community. According to the post, police seized 58 rooms following the raid at the Allahabad University Hostels. Let’s verify the claims made in the post.
Claim: Photo of the youth who were caught while making explosives inside the Allahabad University.
Fact: The photo shows an old picture of a sex-racket gang arrested by the Ratlam police in Madhya Pradesh. In April 2019, Allahabad Police raided two hostels inside the Allahabad University (AU) campus and recovered material used in making crude bombs, a fake pistol and a large number of liquor bottles. But the photo shared in the post has nothing to do with this incident that took place in 2019. Hence, the claim made in the post is MISLEADING.
On reverse image search of the photo shared in the post, a similar photo was found in an article published by the ‘BBC’ about fake child kidnapping rumours on 05 September 2019. ‘BBC’ reported it as the picture of a gang arrested in July 2019, on the charges of prostitution in Ratlam district of Madhya Pradesh.
When we searched for further details using these keywords, the same photo was found in an article published by the ‘Patrika’ news website on 15 July 2019. This article reported that 15 youth including 9 girls were arrested on the charges of prostitution following a police raid at Bachra area in Parwalia village of Ratlam district. This photo of the arrested youth was reportedly captured in front of the Javra police station.
In April 2019, Allahabad Police along with RAF Jawans raided two hostels of the Allahabad University (AU) campus and recovered material used in making crude bombs, a fake pistol, and a large number of liquor bottles. The raid was done after the murder of a former student at PC Bannerjee hostel at the Allahabad University. Following the raid, police have reportedly seized at least 106 rooms in two hostels of the Allahabad University. But the photo shared in the post has nothing to do with this old incident that took place at Allahabad University.
To sum it up, an old photo of an arrested sex-racket gang from Madhya Pradesh is shared as the picture of 25 students caught making explosives at the Allahabad University.