What is the claim?

An image of Congress leader Kanhaiya Kumar, candidate from North East Delhi constituency, is doing rounds on social media with a claim that he was hospitalised after he was assaulted by a group of people in East Delhi’s New Usmanpur area.

According to a report in NDTV, ink was thrown at Kumar and a man slapped him. Aam Aadmi Party’s (AAP) councilor Chhaya Gaurav Sharma was also assaulted. The alleged attackers released a video after the assault and reportedly claimed that they did this because Kumar had “raised slogans against the nation.” AAP and Congress are jointly contesting the the election in Delhi. 

The viral image shows Kumar lying on what appears to be a hospital bed in a white and green t-shirt. An X (formerly Twitter) user shared the image (archived here) and wrote, “This is the condition because of one slap (Translated from Hindi).” 

Screenshot of the viral image shared online. (Source: X/Facebook/Modified by Logically Facts)

However, the image is from 2016 and not linked to the recent incident. 

Here are the facts

A reverse image search led us to an NDTV article published on May 7, 2016. The article had the same image and the caption noted that Kumar, who was then Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) Students’ Union president, was taken to a health center in a semi-conscious state after he called-off his hunger strike due to his deteriorating health. 

According to the report, Kumar and other students from JNU were demonstrating since April 28, 2016, against the punishment handed out to them by the university’s administration in connection with the February event where “anti-national slogans” were allegedly raised.

Screenshot of the NDTV image. (Source: NDTV/Screenshot)

 The Quint also published the same image with the caption, “Kanhaiya Kumar admitted in the emergency ward.” The image was credited to JNUSU President Media Group.

Why was Kanhaiya Kumar protesting?

On February 9, 2016, a row broke over a purported video that showed a group of students at JNU allegedly chanting “anti-national slogans”. Three students — Kanhaiya Kumar, Umar Khalid, and Anirban Bhattacharya — were arrested on charges of sedition and later released on bail.

The university formed a high-level committee to probe the incident. The committed released an investigation report on April 25, 2016, and issued penalties. Kumar was fined ₹10,000, while Khalid and Bhattacharya were rusticated for one semester each. Reports later emerged with experts saying that some of these videos were possibly doctored.

The verdict

The eight-year-old image of Congress candidate Kanahaiya Kumar admitted to a hospital in 2016 has falsely been shared as him being hospitalized after he was slapped during election campaigning. 

(This story was originally published by Logically Facts, and republished by NDTV as part of the Shakti Collective)