Old, Edited BBC Report Falsely Linked To Recent Murshidabad Violence

Fact-Check | The original report dates back to 2019 and did not carry these visuals.

(Photo: Altered by The Quint)

A report purportedly published by BBC Hindi is going viral on social media platforms with users linking it to the recent violence that broke out in West Bengal's Murshidabad district.

What did the report say?: Its headline in Hindi when loosely translated to English said, "'RSS members wearing caps and lungis were pelting stones on the train': Press Review."

• A social media post insinuated that people were disguising themselves as Muslims to commit crimes during the violence in Murshidabad.

An archive of the post can be found here.

(Source: X (formerly Twitter)/Screenshot)

(You can view archives of similar such claims here, here, and here.)

What is the truth?: The report actually dates back to 2019, which talked about people allegedly affiliated with the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) were seen wearing caps and lungis to protest against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA).

• Moreover, the original report did not carry the images seen in the viral claim.

How did we find that out?: We performed a Google search using the headline seen in the viral image and came across the original report by BBC published on 21 December 2019.

• The report said that as per The Telegraph, six people wearing caps and lungis were spotted throwing stones at a train in Murshidabad, West Bengal. However, all of them were allegedly associated with the RSS.

• Two of them were sent to police custody for five days.

• The report did not carry the two visuals seen in the viral claim.

The report was published on 21 December 2019.

(Source: BBC/Screenshot)

Where are these images from?: On isolating the first image and performing a reverse image search on it, we found the same visual in a report published by The Print.

• Its caption said, "A protestor agitates against the passing of Citizenship Amendment Bill (CAB) at Sanmtragachi in Howrah district of West Bengal (sic)."

• The report was shared on 15 December 2019.

It was published on 15 December 2019.

(Source: The Print/Screenshot)

• Team WebQoof repeated the same process for the second image and found a report by The Statesman that carried the same visual.

• The report talked about violence breaking out in West Bengal against the CAA, where people vandalised and set fire to railway stations. This resulted in train services being disrupted.

The report was published on 13 December 2019.

(Source: The Statesman/Screenshot)

Conclusion: It is evident that the actual report as well as the visuals are old and unrelated to the recent violence in Murshidabad.

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