A screenshot of "voter information" from the Election Commission website is going viral with false claims that it belongs to the armed minor who shot a Jamia Millia Islamia University student on January 30, 2020.
The screenshot is being used to claim that since the shooter's name appears on the electoral roll, he cannot be a minor. However, BOOM found that the "voter information" is not of the shooter, but of someone else who goes by the same name in that constituency.
Ashok Swain, professor of Peace and Conflict at Uppsala University, had tweeted out the misleading information on February 2, 2020 with the caption: "Hindutva terrorist, 'Rambhakt' Gopal Sharma, who had fired at a Kashmiri-Muslim protester this week in front of Jamia Milia University seems to be not a minor - He was in the voters' list for 11 April 2019 election. In India, minimum voting is 18 years."
A screenshot of the tweet was also shared by YouTuber Dhruv Rathee on his Facebook page.Left: Ashok Swain's tweet, Right: Dhruv Rathee's post.
Soon enough, the screenshot became viral on Twitter with other captions as well.
The confusion around the shooter's age appeared after ANI posted two conflicting tweets - the first one stating the shooter's age as 19 years, and the second one - a CBSI marksheet of the shooter - stating that he was 17 years old.
Delhi: CBSE marksheet of the allegedly minor gunman who brandished a gun and opened fire in Jamia area, earlier today. One student was injured in the incident. pic.twitter.com/3p6Pgbsl7P
— ANI (@ANI) January 30, 2020
Fact Check
BOOM entered the details in the screenshot on the Election Commission's National Voters' Service Portal, and found the information to be authentic. However, the voter's image was not present, neither were there other details that would single out the Jamia shooter.
The father's name mentioned in "voter information" is Deepchand Sharma. BOOM spoke to Newslaundry reporter Ayan Sharma, who'd recently visited the shooter's family and neighbours, who told us that Deepchand Sharma is not the name of shooter's father.
"The voter information going around does not belong to the shooter. The father's real name does not match the name provided in the voter details," said Sharma.
Meanwhile, reporters at The Quint visited the Collectorate office at Gautam Buddha Nagar district, where the constituency of Jewar is situated. They accessed the details of the voter whose information is going viral, including his photograph.Upon comparing with the photograph of the shooter, they found stark dissimilarities which led them to conclude that the information does not belong to the shooter. They also compared the name of the father in the voter information with the the CBSE marksheet and Aadhar card of the shooter and confirmed Newslaundry's claim that "Deepchand Sharma" is not the father.
Journalist Arvind Gunasekar further found that 16 other people in the same constituency shared their name with the shooter as well.