Few misleading images are doing rounds on social media with the claim of Lockdown violation in Kolkata. A Facebook user shared these photos on 27th March as ‘today’s Kolkata’s lockdown pictures’, meanwhile an active twitter user shared the same pictures with a post on 28th March, with an appeal not to give government support to only those who are following the lockdown and those who are not following should not get benefits, relief and medical treatment from the government.

When the images reached News Sense Fact Check Team, we decided to debunk the pictures and find out the truth. We took the first picture for Google Reverse Image Search, which led us to the image posted on Image sharing site Flickr, according to the site, the picture taken in April 2007 and is from Bara Market in Rawalpindi in Pakistan. Thus the picture made viral is not anyway related to Kolkata and the old image is no way associated with the recent lockdown.
When we started our verification for the Second image, a simple Google reverse image search led us to a report published in Times of India with the title ‘Kolkata: Cops ‘evict’ hawkers, urge Railways to announce Sealdah diversion’ and the image is the part of the report which was published on August 2019, therefore the image used to mislead people claiming it from the ongoing Coronavirus lockdown is thus False.

Then we started our investigation for the third image. A Google Reverse Image Search of the misleading image led us Reddit, where the image is uploaded on October 15th, 2014 depicting it is of Raja Bazar Market in Pakistan’s Rawalpindi.

After our investigation, we found all the three images are wrongly used to mislead people and are nowhere associated with the ongoing lockdown in India.
Claim: People in certain areas of Kolkata are defying the ongoing lockdown.
Conclusion: All the images are wrongly used to mislead people and are nowhere associated with the ongoing lockdown in India.