Video Editor: Deepthi Ramdas
A set of photos of two people injured after the clashes that erupted among the students of Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) over non-vegetarian food being served in a hostel mess on Ram Navami on Sunday, 10 April, is being shared across social media platforms to claim that the students "faked their injuries."
One photo shows a girl with a head injury being supported by a student, while the second image shows the injured girl helping out the other student who is lying unconscious.
The photo and the false narrative are being massively shared on Twitter with the hashtags, #JNUViolence and #JNU_बंद_करो.
However, we found that the two photos were taken a short time apart. The student who suffered the head injury was identified as Akhtarista Ansari and the other one as Madhurima Kundu.
We spoke to Kundu, who said that she fell unconscious in the Kaveri hostel first and that Ansari was hurt during the stone-pelting as they were attempting to leave the premises.
The two photos are being shared with a misleading narrative that the students were pretending to be hurt. A similar narrative was peddled during the January 2020 violence in the university.
We also verified the metadata of the photos, which were taken by another JNU student identified as Dolan Samanta.
CLAIM
The photo is being shared to claim that the JNU women were not really hurt, but were faking their injuries.
An archive of this post can be seen here.
(Source: Twitter/Screenshot)
The set of photos was also shared by Zee News journalist Anubhav Shakya.
The claim is massively viral on Twitter.
(Source: Twitter/Altered by The Quint)
WHAT WE FOUND OUT
We also came across a tweet by the Communist Party of India (Marxist–Leninist) Liberation (CPI-ML) leader and activist Kavita Krishnan, which carried both the photographs and identified the woman dressed in blue as Madhurima Kundu.
The Quint contacted Kundu, who told us about the sequence of events that occurred that night. As per Kundu, she fell unconscious in the Kaveri hostel first and was tended to by people (including Ansari, as seen in the photograph) until she regained consciousness. Shortly after, the students attempted to leave.
"Akhtarista was hurt during the stone-pelting while we were trying to leave the hostel."Madhurima Kundu, JNU Student
Kundu also shared screenshots of the photos with their metadata, which showed that the photos were taken six minutes apart. As per the EXIF data seen in the screenshots:
PHOTO 1: This shows Kundu lying unconscious and it was captured at 8:15 pm.
The photo was taken at 8:15 PM.
(Photo: Accessed by The Quint)
PHOTO 2: The one showing Ansari's head injury was taken at 8:21 pm.
The photo was taken at 8:21 PM.
(Photo:Accessed by The Quint)
In a statement shared with The Quint, Kundu reiterated that the claims on social media were false.
Further, another photo posted by Krishnan showed a bandage on Ansari's forehead, which can also be seen in an NDTV bulletin.
Evidently, the two pictures, which were indeed taken one after the other in a short time span, are being shared to push a narrative targeting the students.
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