2015 Photo Falsely Shared As Amit Shah Visiting COVID-19 Patients

An old image of Home Minister Amit Shah inaugurating an eye hospital in Madhya Pradesh has resurfaced with spin that the senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader visited patients infected with the novel Coronavirus at a hospital.

The image shows the minster of Home Affairs in a corridor wearing blue scrubs. The Bangla caption, when translated to English, reads, "Home Minister Amit Shah visited a hospital to check on Coronavirus infected patients and support the doctors."

(Caption in Bengali: স্বরাষ্ট্রমন্ত্রী অমিত শাহ্ নিজে হাসপাতালে গিয়ে করোনা আক্রান্ত ও ডাক্তাদের পাশে। আমার গর্ব আমার প্রধানমন্ত্রী ; আমার গর্ব আমার স্বরাষ্ট্রমন্ত্রী; #IndiaFightsCoronavitus )

Fact Check

BOOM was able to ascertain that the image was not clicked after the outbreak of COVID-19 as no one including Shah can be seen wearing hazmat suit or masks, which is mandatory while interacting with any patient infected with the virus.

We ran a reverse image search and found that the photograph is originally from 2015, when Shah was in Chitrakoot, Madhya Pradesh, to inaugurate an eye hospital. Shah tweeted a set of four images from the inauguration of the Sadguru Seva Trust Eye Hospital, including the viral photo, where he can be seen interacting with medical personnel.