Photo of a Bus Accident From Nepal Shared With a False Communal Narrative

The photo of the bus is from 2019 when six people were killed when a bus plunged into Trishuli river in Nepal.

A photo of a bus fallen into a river is being circulated on social media with a claim that the driver of the bus killed all 90 people travelling in it intentionally. It further adds a communal narrative to the story by identifying the driver as a Hindu and the passengers as Muslims.

The caption goes on to add that the driver killed the people because he was once forced to eat non-vegetarian food at a Muslim wedding in the 90s.

However, we found the photo is from 2019 when six people were killed when a bus plunged into the Trishuli river in Benighat of Dhading district, Nepal.

CLAIM

The photo is being shared with a story that says that the driver killed all 90 people because when he was forced to eat non-vegetarian food no one helped him or stopped the boys who were forcing him.

It further adds that this story was narrated by the conductor of the bus to a journalist.

Another archived link of the photo shared with the same claim can be found here.

The post was also widely shared in 2020 and an archived link can be seen here.

WHAT WE FOUND

We conducted a Google reverse image search on the photo that is being circulated and found it in a news report in the website of Nepal-based daily The Kathmandu Post.

The report said that six people died and 23 were missing, after a Kathmandu-bound bus from Malangwa, carrying nearly 50 people, plunged into the Trishuli river in Benighat on 9 August 2019.

The bus driver Laxman Jamarkattel, assistant driver Pramod Chaudhary and conductor Rishi Uprety were rescued.

Next, we looked for any news reports about 90 wedding guests who died in a bus accident in the Chambal river. But we found no such news reports.

However, we found a news report from 2009 in The New Indian Express which read that at least 33 people were killed and eight others injured when a bus travelling between Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh veered off the Rajghat bridge over the dry river bed of Chambal river in Morena district of MP, on 1 June 2009.

We also looked for the story as the caption said it was narrated to a journalist but found nothing on that either.

Clearly, a fabricated story is being shared on social media with a communal narrative.

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