By Hazel Gandhi
A series of images, showing the damage sustained by a train from stone pelting, along with an injured passenger, has been shared by several media outlets along with social media users, purporting to show the damage sustained by the newly inaugurated Vande Bharat Express between Howrah and New Jalpaiguri in West Bengal, from the recent incidents of stone pelting at the train.
BOOM found these posts and reports to be false; our fact-check revealed that the visuals being shared are from another stone-pelting incident that took place on the Purulia express on January 1, 2023.
On Monday, January 2, two days after PM Modi inaugurated the Vande Bharat Express virtually from Gujarat, stones were pelted at the C-13 coach of the train in Malda, West Bengal. The next day, stones were pelted again, this time damaging the C-3 and C-6 coaches of the train as it was arriving in New Jalpaiguri. The back-to-back incidents stirred a controversy in the state, with the BJP demanding an NIA probe into the matter.
Following this, four photos online showing shards of the window glass strewn on the seats and the ground along with an injured man are circulating online. On Twitter, they are being shared with the caption, "Some stone pelter attack on Vande Bharat Express near about 25 km away from #Malda station - see the results. This people not deserving best. @RailMinIndia plz do some action. Source - Social media"
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A News18 bulletin used these visuals in its report about the incident too.
Screenshot from the News18 bulletin.
Here is the full video:
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The same bulletin was also shared by BJP MP Dr Sukanta Majumdar.
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Times Now, in its report about the incident, also used one of these visuals.
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FACT-CHECK
BOOM found that the visuals are from another stone-pelting incident that took place in the Howrah-Purulia Superfast Express, and not the Vande Bharat Express.
Using the picture of the injured man, we ran a reverse image search on Google and found a Facebook post by a page called Jangalmahal which used the photo and claimed that the incident was from the Purulia Express. The post was attributed to a user called Pranabesh Sen.
We looked up Pranabesh Sen's profile and found the same post in which he had detailed the incident. Sen's post was uploaded on January 1, 2023, before the Vande Bharat vandalisms took place. Sen wrote about how stones pelted from outside ended up injuring a 30-year-old man on the Purulia Express, followed by some grievances addressed to the RPF and the railway staff.
Here is a comparison of the visuals in Pranabesh Sen's posts and the viral posts claiming to be from the Vande Bharat Express
Moreover, we also found vlogs online by users who travelled in the new Vande Bharat Express, and compared the photos of the seats in the viral image to the seats seen in the vlogs. As seen in the comparison below, the seats in the executive coach and chair car coach of the Vande Bharat Express are red and blue, respectively, unlike the seats seen in the viral image.
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