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  • 2022-05-17 (xsd:date)
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  • This photo shows people arrested for being part of a prostitution ring, not for making bombs (en)
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  • An image has been shared thousands of times in Indian social media posts alongside a claim it shows students who were caught making bombs in a university hostel in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh. Police did find crude bombs during a raid on University of Allahabad hostels in 2019, but the image being shared online is not from that operation. It circulated in news reports about a police operation against a prostitution racket in a different state, also in 2019. The image was shared here on Twitter on April 27, 2022. Its Hindi-language caption translates in part as: Allahabad University hostel became the new hub of terrorism, 25 students were caught making bombs. The University of Allahabad is in the north Indian state of Uttar Pradesh . The image was shared alongside a picture of the state’s Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, a firebrand Hindu monk known for his sectarian rhetoric and hardline stance on crime. Screenshot of the misleading post, taken May 14, 2022. Similar claims circulated on Facebook here and here , and on Twitter here and here . The University of Allahabad’s hostels were raided in April 2019 after a local court expressed concern over violence at the university and its hostels, according to a report in the Indian daily The Hindustan Times. The report said at least 13 youths were detained for questioning after they were found to be living illegally at the hostels, while crude bombs, bomb-making materials and a toy gun were also found. However, the image being circulated was not taken during the raid. Madhya Pradesh arrests The university’s chief proctor Harsh Kumar told AFP that the image is not from any of the university’s hostels. In the recent past, no such incident has happened in any hostel of our university, nor has there been any raid in any hostel by the administration. This picture is being shared with a false claim, he said. AFP conducted reverse image and keyword searches based on Hindi-language text on a signboard seen in the photo shared with the misleading posts, which reads: Office of the Superintendent of Police, Jawra district, Ratlam (Madhya Pradesh). The photo shared in the misleading posts, with the signboard marked up by AFP Madhya Pradesh is a central Indian state that borders Uttar Pradesh. The searches found a report by the Hindi-language news website Patrika that was published on July 15, 2019. The headline translates as: 15 youths including 9 girls involved in prostitution were arrested. The article states that police in Ratlam district made several arrests during an operation to shut down a prostitution ring on July 14, 2019. Below is a screenshot comparison of the image in the misleading post (left) and the image published in the Patrika news report (right): Screenshot comparison of the image in the misleading post (left) and the image published in the Patrika news report (right) A screenshot of the Patrika article was also shared by the Ratlam police on their official Facebook page here on July 15, 2019. Responding to an AFP enquiry, Surendra Singh of the Ratlam police said the image was from 2019. The police had received information about these criminals, after which they were arrested in a police raid. In this action, a total of 24 people were arrested, of which 15 were youths and nine were girls, Singh said. The Hindi-language newspaper Mandsaur Sandesh also reported about the prostitution ring bust in Ratlam district. The newspaper told AFP the article was published in July 2019. The image has previously circulated alongside the false claim that it showed a gang of thieves accused of kidnapping children, which was debunked by Hindi-language newspaper Dainik Bhasker here . (en)
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