Image of an injured CISF jawan being circulated in context with the Shitalkuchi attacks

West Bengal witnessed widespread violence in the fourth phase (April 10) of West Bengal Elections 2021 across polling booths in the Cooch Behar district. According to media reports four people died in CISF firing at poll booth number 126 in Sitalkuchi. One person was killed in a separate incident at poll booth number 285 in Shitalkuchi. 

After this incident several social media users flooded online platforms with contradictory claims on who initiated the attack. Following this BJP members including Saumitra Khan, Arjun Singh and Keya Ghosh shared an image of injured personnel claiming that it shows proof of a CISF jawan injured by TMC goons in Shitalkuchi.

The TMC has also written to the Election Commission of India asking for action against the CISF personnel who opened fire at Sitalkuchi poll booth number 126.

Several Facebook users have also shared the same image of an injured army personnel claiming that the image is evidence that a CISF jawan was attacked at Shitalkuchi polling booth by TMC goons.

The caption of the post mentions, “A picture speaks a thousands of words. Mamata Banerjee claimed that CISF personnel were not attacked in Shitalkuchi. The photo of the injured jawan reveals the horrors of the attack. Due to Mamata’s provocation was attacked by TMC goons on the Central Force. Everything cleared up.”

This image was also posted with the same claim buy BJP leader Suvendu Adhikari who is contesting elections from Nandigram on BJP’s ticket.

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Fact Check- 

We started our investigation by running a Google reverse image search on the image circulating on social media. The results led us to similar images published by Jagran on 10^th April 2021. According to the article, an assistant sub inspector of CISF was attack by monkeys in Jharkhand’s Dhanbad on April 9. ASI SP Sharma, who was on duty at the CISF camp at Bhimakanali, was attacked and injured on Friday night by the monkeys. The soldiers of the force said that Sharma was on duty at night when suddenly three to four monkeys attacked him. He tried to beat them with sticks in order to save himself, but the monkeys severely scratched his cheek.

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Next, Fact Crescendo spoke to SI Pradeep Kumar from the CISF at the Dhanbad headquarters who confirmed to us that the claims made via viral social media posts are false. The image or incident does not have anything to do with the ongoing West Bengal elections or any other political parties. The inspector was taken to the central hospital in Dhanbad where he is currently undergoing treatment.

Giving more details about the incident he said “The incident took place in the evening of April 9 around 6 pm. ASI SP Sharma was on duty in the BK2 Area of Bagmara which is a coal mine area. The area is also infamous for monkey attacks. According to preliminary reports, the monkey that attacked ASI SP Sharma was mentally unstable.”

Conclusion– Fact Crescendo has found the above-mentioned link to be False. The viral image on social media does not have any relation with the ongoing West Bengal elections or any political parties. The police inspector in the image was attacked by a monkey recently.