An image of an accident that occurred at a steel mill in Ukraine has been misleadingly used in a Facebook graphic by a Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) fan page to claim that it shows series of blasts in West Bengal ahead of the election.
(Original Text in Bangla: বিজেপিকে ভয় পাচ্ছে তৃণমূল। সুজাপুরের পর নৈহাটি, পরপর বাংলায় বিস্ফোরণ বোমাবাজি করে সাধারণ মানুষকে ভয় দেখাচ্ছে শাসকদল, বাংলার নির্বাচনে বোমাবাজি চলে। সাধারণ মানুষের জন্য ভোটে সতর্ক থাকতে হবে কমিশনকে। বিজেপি পরিবারে যোগ দিন। বাংলায় আসল পরিবর্তনের শপথ নিন।)
According to reports, a massive explosion occurred in North 24 Parganas' Naihati in January this year. While the BJP alleged that it was an RDX blast, West Bengal police suggested that the explosion occurred when they were conducting a controlled detonation of firecrackers recovered from a Naihati factory. In North Bengal's Malda district five workers were killed and at least four others injured in an explosion at a plastic factory in Sujapur area of West Bengal's Malda district on November 20. The BJP has demanded an impartial inquiry into the blast, alleging that the factory was illegally used to make bombs. Read more here.
Upon doing a reverse search on the image used in the graphic BOOM was led to a stock image by Istock Photo which was uploaded on March 22, 2017.
The image has been captioned as, "Accident at a steel mill." Additional tags with the photograph reads, "Ukraine, Fire, Factory, Produce, Industry"
Istock also has a similar image from a different angle of the incident.
Additionally, the image used in the viral post can be seen on another photo website, Shutterstock here.
The stock images archive credited photographer Shestakov Dmytro for the image. BOOM reached out to Dmytro on Instagram who confirmed that the photo was taken in 2015 in Ukarine. "It was a minor hardware issue that was fixed right away. There were no consequences for production or aberration for environment, " Dmytro said.
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