A picture of former Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) students Kanhaiya Kumar, Umar Khalid and Anirban Bhattacharya is being heavily circulated on social media. The picture claimed that the JNU students celebrated the death of 76 Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) soldiers in the university campus.
A Facebook page Social Tamasha has been circulating this bit of misinformation. The text on the picture reads, "कैसे भूल सकते हो। जब छत्तीसग़ढ में 76 जवान शहीद हुए थे तब इसी JNU में जश्न मनाया गया था। (How can you forget when 76 CRPF soldiers were killed in Chattisgarh, JNU had celebrated the day.)"
The Claim
A photograph was shared with the false claim that the JNU students, including Kanhaiya Kumar, Umar Khalid and Anirban Bhattacharya, celebrated the attack on CRPF jawans during Dantewada massacre. In 2010 massacre of 76 security personnel took place in Chattisgarh.
The truth
While running the picture through a reverse image search, it was found that the picture was used in a story by Outlook magazine issued on May 13, 2019, by photojournalist Sanjay Rawat.
Sanjay Rawat confirmed to Alt News that the picture was shot by him on September 10, 2016. The picture features students celebrating the victory of CPI (ML)-affiliated student body All India Students Association (AISA) and CPI's student wing Students' Federation of India (SFI) in the 2016 JNU students' union elections.
The picture shared dated from on September 10, 2016. The Dantewada massacre happened in 2010 and Kanhaiya Kumar was the student of JNU between the year 2011 and 2019. Kumar was not even the student of JNU during the Dantewada massacre.
