Old photos of acid attack victim shared with false communal spin.
Claim
His Abdul was also not like that. What a painter, congratulations for the painting..
Rating
Explanation
A comparison of two images of a girl that purportedly shows before and after an acid attack is shared on Twitter and Facebook with the claim that it was due to Love Jihad where Abdul, her boyfriend attacked her with acid. The image was captioned sarcastically that Abdul was a painter and has done the painting on her face with laughing emoticons. Some of the posts with such a claim can be seen here and here.
इनका अब्दुल भी ऐसा वैसा नहीं था..
पेंटर था क्या पेंटिंग की है बधाइयां बेशुमार ..🤣🤣 pic.twitter.com/s57a1khdJs— Rahul Tripathi (@Tripathi98) May 28, 2023
The posts in Hindi are captioned as “इनका अब्दुल भी ऐसा वैसा नहीं था.. पेंटर था क्या पेंटिंग की है बधाइयां बेशुमार”
What is the truth?
When reverse-searching the viral image we found that the image is not only old but is also unrelated to the ‘Love Jihad’ claim. An Indonesian website ‘Grid’ is found carrying a second image of the girl mentioning that Resham Khan, an artist’s face was splashed with hard water. It further mentions that a terrible incident happened to Resham Khan, an Indian model on her birthday.
With further search, an Insider article dated October 2017 is found carrying the first image. The article mentions that the college student Resham Khan and her cousin, Jameel Muhktar were allegedly attacked with acid in London. Police charged 24-year-old East Londoner John Tomlin in this incident.
The first image is found posted by Resham Khan on her Twitter page. And it is revealed that the first image of her is also an after-attack image. Four months after the attack she posts her recovery photo with the caption “Time to stop hiding”.
An Instagram post by ‘I Am Hip-Hop Magazine’ dated 29, June 2017 is found carrying the images of Resham Khan and the attacker John Tomlin asking the public to help find the accused who racially attacked Resham Khan and her cousin in London with acid.
The Evening Standard article dated April 2018 mentions that the attacker John Tomlin was jailed for 16 years and an extra four years on licence after the 16-year sentence has expired.
Conclusion
It is found that the viral photos are not only old but also not related to ‘Love Jihad’ as claimed by many on social media. The photos are of an Indian model Resham Khan who was attacked with acid by John Tomlin in London.
