This doctored image does not show Amit Shah campaigning in Kolkata’s red-light district
- This article is more than one year old.
- Published on April 20, 2021 at 10:00
- 2 min read
- By AFP India
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The photo of Amit Shah, the former president of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), was published here on Facebook post on April 11, 2021.
The post’s Hindi-language caption translates to English as: “Indian home minister wandering in the streets of Sonagachi during the campaigning.”
A poster in the bottom left-hand corner of the photo reads: “Room number 13, Savita Rani, Sonagachi.”
Sonagachi is a red light district in the Indian city of Kolkata.
Elections were held in the east Indian state of West Bengal in April 2021. The polls saw Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Hindu-nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party seeking to end a decade of rule by the state's firebrand leader Mamata Banerjee. AFP reported on the elections here.
The photo was also shared here and here on Facebook alongside an identical claim.
The claim, however, is false. The photo of Shah has been digitally altered.
A reverse image search found the original photo published here on Shah's official Twitter account on April 9, 2021.
“Few more from Bhabanipur’s door to door campaign. #BJP200PlusInBengal,” reads the tweet.
Few more from Bhabanipur’s door to door campaign. #BJP200PlusInBengal pic.twitter.com/wuuKmeaZyz
— Amit Shah (@AmitShah) April 9, 2021
Below is a screenshot comparison of the altered photo (L) and the photo in Shah’s tweet (R):
The district of Bhowanipore, which reads as Bhabanipur, is approximately six miles from Sonagachi, according to Google Maps.
Several Indian media outlets including, United News of India here and Times of India here, reported on Shah’s election campaign in Kolkata’s Bhowanipore.
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