Old Photo Of Mass Cheating At Exam Centre In Bihar Viral As Gujarat

An old image showing men scaling the walls of an exam centre in Bihar to enable cheating, is viral with false captions linking the picture to the state of education in Gujarat.

BOOM found that the viral picture is from 2015 and shows men scampering the unplastered wall of a government school in Vaishali district of Bihar to pass on answer chits to examinees.

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The picture shows a four-storeyed building with men latched on to the windows on each storey.

The image was tweeted, and later deleted, by Twitter user Dr Bharat Kanabar. The tweet was quoted by Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal with a caption suggesting the picture is from Gujarat.

Kanabar's tweet at no point mentions that the image is from Gujarat. The tweet in Gujarati, translates to 'Education has become a commodity in this country of 200 universities and 40,000 colleges... buyers and sellers are shameless'.

Kejriwal quoted Kanabar's tweet with a Hindi caption that translates to 'People of BJP are also raising questions on the crumbling education of Gujarat. Rising above the party line, voices are being raised for good education in Gujarat. BJP could not provide good education in 27 years. "AAP" government will provide good education in Gujarat like in Delhi by taking the people of Gujarat and all the parties along'.

(Hindi: भाजपा के लोग भी गुजरात की चरमराती शिक्षा पर प्रश्न उठा रहे। पार्टी लाइन से ऊपर उठकर गुजरात में अच्छी शिक्षा के लिए आवाज़ उठने लगी है। 27 साल में भाजपा अच्छी शिक्षा नहीं दे पायी। गुजरात के लोगों और सभी पार्टियों को साथ लेकर "आप" सरकार गुजरात में भी दिल्ली की तरह अच्छी शिक्षा देगी)

Meanwhile, screenshots of Kejriwal's tweet are being shared on Facebook with captions suggesting the picture is from Gujarat.

Click here, here, here and here to view more such posts.

Fact Check

BOOM found that Dr Bharat Kanabar has deleted his tweet with the viral picture.

In another tweet, Kanabar writes in Gujarati 'The photograph in my tweet is from Bihar. The main issue is about bad elements entering the education sector. Congress and AAP members should stop having a field day. I have been an active activist of BJP for 35 years and the ideology of nationalism is in my veins, so even if you ask me when I wake up, my loyalities will be with "K" of the kamal'.

(Gujarati: મારી ટવીટમાં આપેલ ફોટોગ્રાફ બિહારનો છે. મૂળ મુદ્દો શિક્ષણ ક્ષેત્રમાં પ્રવેશેલ બદીઓ અંગેનો છે. આમાં કોંગ્રેસ કે આપ વાળા હરખાવા જેવું કઈં નથી. ૩૫ વર્ષથી ભાજપનો સક્રિય કાર્યકર્તા છું અને રાષ્ટ્રવાદની વિચારધારા નસ નસમાં છે એટલે ઊંઘમાંથી ઉઠાડીને પૂછો તો પણ "ક" કમળનો "ક" જ બોલાય જાય.)

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Taking cue, we did a reverse image search on the viral picture with related keywords and found several news reports from 2015 carrying the same image.

One of the reports published in The Indian Express on March 23, 2015 stated that the image was clicked at a school in Manhar town of Vaishali district in Bihar. A caption with the photo carried in The Express reads 'The photograph of men scaling the exam centre wall, which went viral, forcing the Bihar government to act tough against cheating'. The photograph has been credited to Prashant Ravi, Express.

The report says that the incident had taken place in Vidya Niketan school in Manhar, Vaishali during the matriculation examination.

However, the Express reports misspells the name of the place where the incident took place all through the copy. The photo was clicked in Mahnar and not Manhar, in Vaishali district of Bihar.

Back then, the picture had garnered the attention of international media too with several foreign media houses covering the news and carrying the picture. A report published in Canadian Broadcasting Corporation on March 20, 2015 wrote, "In eastern India, hundreds of 10th grade students were expelled after they were caught cheating on their exams earlier this week."

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