The West Bengal unit of Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) shared an infographic on the vandalisation of homes of BJP leaders and activists, in which Minakhan police reportedly arrested four people. The party blamed Mamata Banerjee’s Trinamool Congress (TMC) for the incident.
However, the image showing a house put on fire that is used in the infograph is neither recent nor from West Bengal. The image is actually from California and dates back to May 2014.
CLAIM
The official handle of BJP Bengal wrote in Bangla, “How much more will the Pishi oppress the opponents? And how many people will be victims of political violence in your kingdom? Answer Pishi.”
According to Anandabazar Patrika, house of BJP minority leader Noor Islam Ghazi was also looted and set on fire on 13 January.
The text in the infograph alleges that Trinamool “goons” were behind the attack. The infograph uses a cut-out of West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and a house put on fire.
The same infograph was shared on BJP West Bengal’s Facebook page and tweeted by BJP Birbhum.
The infograph was widely shared on Facebook.
WHAT WE FOUND OUT
We performed a reverse search on the image used in the infograph and found a BBC report from 2014 that carried the same image and mentioned that it is from California wildfires. The article attributed the image to Getty Images.
We then searched on Getty Images and found that the viral image was captured in May 2014.
The description along with the image reads: “A house is consumed by a wildfire on May 14, 2014 in San Marcos, California. About 500 acres have burned in the San Marcos blaze, fueled by record heat, high winds and dry conditions. At least four other fires advanced in nearby communities.”
Evidently, a seven-year-old photo from California was shared by BJP handles and was falsely linked to West Bengal.
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