Authors
An Electronics & Communication engineer by training, Arjun switched to journalism to follow his passion. After completing a diploma in Broadcast Journalism at the India Today Media Institute, he has been debunking mis/disinformation for over three years. His areas of interest are politics and social media. Before joining Newschecker, he was working with the India Today Fact Check team.
Pankaj Menon is a fact-checker based out of Delhi who enjoys ‘digital sleuthing’ and calling out misinformation. He has completed his MA in International Relations from Madras University and has worked with organisations like NDTV, Times Now and Deccan Chronicle online in the past.
Claim
Photo shows a Muslim man carrying a corpse on his bike.
Fact
The photo is from Egypt and the man was carrying a mannequin on his bike, not a corpse.
A photo showing a man riding a bike, seemingly with a corpse bound up in the pillion seat, is doing the rounds on social media. The purported corpse is packed in a rucksack, and a limb can be seen sticking out. Those sharing the image are sharing it with a communal twist, insinuating that it was a case of ‘love jihad’.
The post is viral on Twitter and Facebook with the Hindi caption “Uska Abdul sabse alag tha” which translates to “his Abdul was different from rest”.
Fact Check/Verification
With the help of a Google reverse image search, we traced the viral image to a news report by Cairo 24 published on June 2, which revealed that the viral image was from Egypt’s capital Cairo. As per the report, the image shocked social media users in Egypt, with many believing the man to be carrying a corpse on his two-wheeler, which in reality was a mannequin.
The report also quoted the Interior Minister of Egypt making the same clarification. The man seen in the photo was on his way to deliver the mannequin to a shop in Cairo, when someone clicked a picture of him and shared it on social media, it said, and quoted someone in the know of the incident, revealing the same.
Alarabiya, another prominent media house in the Middle East, also confirmed the same in its report. On further investigation, we found a Facebook post dated June 1, by one Mohammed Nasr, who stated that the man seen in the viral photo was him, and that the claims accusing him of carrying a corpse on his bike were false.
In this post, Nasr also mentioned his phone number and the name of the shop where he had to deliver the mannequin, and shared a Facebook video of a woman named Samah Emad explaining the facts behind the viral photo.
Samah, who identifies herself as a faculty of Mass Communication at the Suez University of Egypt, also posted a photo of Nasr and his bike in the comment section of her post. On close analysis, one sees that the bike in the picture posted by Samah is similar to the one seen in the viral photo.
Also read…2018 Incident Of Udupi Man Averting Train Accident Falsely Linked To Odisha Tragedy
Newschecker also tried to reach out to Mohammed Nasr and Samah Emad. The story will be updated if we receive their response.
Conclusion
It can thus be concluded that the viral photo showing a man allegedly carrying a dead body in his two-wheeler, is actually from Egypt and shows a man carrying a mannequin. The image has been falsely given a communal spin, and shared on social media.
Result: False
Our Sources
Reports of Cairo24, published on June 2, 2023
Report of Alarabiya, published on May 31, 2023
Facebook posts of Mohammed Nasr and Samah Emad
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Authors
An Electronics & Communication engineer by training, Arjun switched to journalism to follow his passion. After completing a diploma in Broadcast Journalism at the India Today Media Institute, he has been debunking mis/disinformation for over three years. His areas of interest are politics and social media. Before joining Newschecker, he was working with the India Today Fact Check team.
Pankaj Menon is a fact-checker based out of Delhi who enjoys ‘digital sleuthing’ and calling out misinformation. He has completed his MA in International Relations from Madras University and has worked with organisations like NDTV, Times Now and Deccan Chronicle online in the past.
