Morphed Image Viral As Mamata Banerjee Faking Injury

A morphed image of West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee walking in front of a wheelchair has surfaced with claims that she has been faking her foot injury to gain voters.

The image shows Trinamool Congrees party members Abhishek Banerjee and Firhad Hakim among others standing behind the wheelchair, as the TMC supremo is captured in motion. BOOM found that the original image, where Banerjee is seated on a wheelchair, has been edited to include a cutout of Banerjee walking. The same was taken when Banerjee was released from the SSKM hospital after being treated for a foot injury.

The image has been doing the rounds with narratives that call out Banerjee for faking an injury ahead of elections.

Mamata Banerjee, who injured a foot on March 10 in Nandigram, had initially alleged that she was pushed by a few men when the car door was slammed shut on her leg. She had also said that there were no police personnel around her at the time. Referring to the injury the next day, Banerjee however did not term it an attack. In a latest development the Election Commission has suspended the police officer in charge Pravin Prakash, and transferred District Magistrate Vibhu Goyal to a non-election post citing a major security lapse. She was also photographed leading a march to commemorate Nandigram Divas on March 14 in Kolkata, the first appearance post the injury.

The image has been captioned on Facebook as, "How much are going to act respected?? You are coming in front of ordinary people wearing a bandage and when you are near your residence at Kalighat, then you you are coming out of your car without a wheelchair. People are not that stupid, respect!"

The image is viral with Hindi captions on Facebook too.

A twitter user captioned the image as, "From Plaster to Bandage to Walking. What a Actor.!!!"

From Plaster to Bandage to Walking .

What a Actor.!!! pic.twitter.com/spQRcv3jz6
— Aayush Dubey (@ModifiedAayush) March 14, 2021

Also Read: Edited Image Of Amit Shah And Owaisi Shared Ahead Of Assembly Elections

Fact Check

Twitter handle Atheist Krishna was one of the first to tweet the image, with a sarcastic caption, that reads, "If there was a good photoshopper, then didi would have been fine today." The handle is known for photoshopping images which eventually go viral among right wing netizens, who believe them to be true.

Agar accha photoshopper hota toh didi aaj theek hoti......... pic.twitter.com/5zn3tksRbK
— Krishna (@Atheist_Krishna) March 14, 2021

BOOM ran a reverse search and found that the viral photo was made of two unrelated images.

We ran a reverse image serach on the viral photograph and was led to several news reports from March 12, 2021 which featured the original image. According to the description, the image was taken when Banerjee was discharged from the SSKM hospital on March 12. Hindustan Times credited the image to wire agency ANI. Here is a video from the same time.