Bengali daily and CPI(M) mouthpiece Ganashakti published a photograph in its September 17 edition which shows doctors bowing their heads in front of what appears to be a dead body covered in a green shroud. The photo is captioned, “Doctors and health workers of AIIMS Delhi paying their last respects around the body of Comrade Sitaram Yechury.”
The photo is also viral on social media with the same claim — that doctors are paying their respect to the late CPI(M) general secretary Sitaram Yechury, whose body was donated at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), Delhi, for medical education.
X-verified user Pradeep Rai (@pradeepraiindia) shared the picture and wrote in his tweet, “What a remarkable gesture by doctors of #AIIMS #Delhi . Honoring organ donor #SitaramYechury with a last salute acknowledges the immense contribution by giving others a second chance at life…. ” (Archive)
He later deleted the tweet.
NDTV reporter and anchor Gargi Rawat (@GargiRawat) retweeted Rai and wrote, “How amazing to see.. not only has #SitaramYechury helped countless others in this last gesture, but hopefully it will create awareness about the need for organ donation. India has one of the poorest records.“ (Archive)
The picture is widely viral on Facebook with similar claims. Alt News found that hundreds of users had shared the photo.
Fact Check
A reverse image search of the picture led us to a news report from September 30, 2016 on CGTN.com, the web portal of the Chinese state-run English-language media outlet China Global Television Network. The headline of the report reads ‘Chinese doctor dies while volunteering in Tibet, donates his organs’. The news article contains the photograph that has gone viral.
The report says that the image is from a hospital in Hefei City, the capital of Anhui Province in China, where doctors paid their respect to Zhao Ju, a 41-year-old doctor from Anhui. Zhao had volunteered to work in Shannan in the Tibet Autonomous Region with a group of other doctors two months prior to his unfortunate demise. “Zhao’s family respected his noble last wishes and donated his kidneys, liver and corneas”, the article adds.
The media outlet also shared the photo along with several others on Facebook on the same day. The post said, “…Zhao’s family respected his noble last wishes and donated his kidneys, liver and corneas… Fellow doctors were pictured paying their respects to Zhao with deep bows at a hospital in Hefei City, the capital of Anhui Province…”
Chinese doctor dies while volunteering in Tibet, donates his organs
Zhao Ju, a 41-year-old doctor from east China’s…
Posted by CGTN on Friday 30 September 2016
We also found other news reports on Zhao’s death, which mentioned that he had donated all usable organs. One such report that carried the now-viral image can be read here.
The same photo was also used in another feature story by CGTN published on December 28, 2016 headlined, “Cultural traditions, distrust lie behind China’s organ donation dilemma”.
On September 18, Ganashakti carried a corrigendum and apologized for publishing an ‘incorrect photo’.
To sum up, the photo viral as AIIMS’ doctors’ last respects to the late CPI(M) leader Sitaram Yechury is from China, 2016. It shows doctors bowing in front of the body of the late Dr Zhao Ju.
Ankita Mahalanobish is an intern at Alt News.
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