Does this photo show a Jain monk who was attacked in Karnataka after Congress victory?

Hyderabad: A set of three photos of an injured woman and two men is going viral on social media. The photo shows a woman and a man profusely bleeding from their heads.

Those sharing the photo claim that Congress is showing its real face after winning the Karnataka Assembly elections. They claim that a Jain monk was attacked by Muslims when he refused to raise “Congress Zindabad” slogans.

(Click here and here to see the posts.)

Fact Check

NewsMeter found that the three photos predate the Congress victory in the 2023 Karnataka Assembly elections.

Photos 1 & 2

On performing a reverse image search of the first and second photos, we found they were tweeted by Congress leader Imran Pratapgarhi and AAP leader Sanjay Singh in 2018. Both leaders claimed that the photos show B.Ed. and T.E.T. aspirants who were beaten up in Lucknow while demanding jobs from Yogi Adityanath’s Uttar Pradesh government. (Click here and here to see the Twitter posts.)

NewsMeter could not independently verify the origin of the photo. However, we found that both photos have been online since 2018.

Photo 3

Similarly, we performed a reverse image search of the third photo and found it in a Deccan Chronicle report from 31 March 2018. It said the photo shows Upadhyaya Mayank Sagar Ji Maharaj who was injured in an accident. It also said the photo was taken from a Jain news portal, Ahimsa Kranti.

It is evident that the three photos have been online since at least 2018. Hence, we conclude that the claim that the viral photo shows a Jain monk who was attacked by Muslims after Congress’ victory in Karnataka is false.