Fact Check: Viral post of UP police beating students contains old pictures
By Mounika Dasari Published on 17 Sep 2020 10:00 AM GMT
Hyderabad: Students are protesting against increasing unemployment and conducting exams during the pandemic. As part of the protests, students are banging plates, taking out candlelight rallies which Prime Minister Narendra Modi told to thank doctors for their services to the society.
Meanwhile, some pictures on social media are claiming that in Lucknow, the police of Yogi Adityanath government had thrashed unemployed students. There are three photos in the viral post. The first picture is of a badly injured boy, while in the rest of the photographs the police can be seen barricading youth during the protests. The police personnel are seen carrying lathis.
While sharing the images, people are taunting the Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh, Yogi Adityanath, writing 'giving job to unemployed students in Lucknow today. Yogi ji jio maharaj aap lion ho lion'. The post notched over 6,900 likes.
Similar claim is found here.
Fact check:
These pictures are from Lucknow but are almost two years old. The claim is FALSE.
Newsmeter found that the viral post is from Lucknow, but they are two years old.
Using reverse search on Google, we found all the three photos were clicked in Lucknow on November 2, 2018. The first photo can be seen with a report. According to the report, candidates had laid siege to the Assembly in Lucknow seeking recruitment as assistant teachers. At the same time, the UP police and protesters clashed and the police wielded lathis on them.
More than a dozen protesters were injured in this clash. The candidates had staged this demonstration demanding reducing the cut off mark for recruitment and filling the vacant posts. The first picture was also tweeted by Rahul Gandhi attacking Yogi's sarkar (government). These pictures were shared widely at that time.
Demonstrators are still adamant on their demand, demanding 30 and 33 cut offs. At the same time, many students got serious injuries in lathicharge during the protest, heavy police force deployed in front of the assembly. @Uppolice
Here are some media reports which show similar images of the protest in 2018.
The pictures shown in the post are old. Hence the claim is FALSE.
