Days after the Delhi blast, Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) Delhi president Saurabh Bharadwaj shared some photos featuring Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Delhi chief minister Rekha Gupta standing next to a survivor undergoing treatment at the Lok Nayak Jai Prakash (LNJP) Hospital. While doing so, he suggested that the photos were staged and the patient’s injuries were fabricated. (Archive)
After the explosive laden car went off near the Red Fort in Delhi in the evening of November 10, the injured were taken to LNJP Hospital, where several political figures paid a visit subsequently. Union home minister Amit Shah visited the blast site and met the survivors at LNJP just a few hours after the blast, followed by Delhi CM Rekha Gupta. On Wednesday, November 12, Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited the hospital and met the survivors after coming back to New Delhi from his two-day visit to Bhutan.
In the caption of his X post, Bharadwaj pointed out the apparent discrepancies in the photos of the CM and the PM meeting the same survivor. He claimed that when the PM met him, the patient had a “New costume” and “New plaster”.
11.11.2025 मरीज़ से पहले CM रेखा गुप्ता मिली
12.11.2025 अगले दिन उसी मरीज़ PM मोदी मिलेनए कॉस्ट्यूम , हाथ में नया पलास्टर pic.twitter.com/FpvHCap8GA
— Saurabh Bharadwaj (@Saurabh_MLAgk) November 13, 2025
The post has garnered over 1 million views.
A few other social media users have made similar claims. Some of them are in the gallery below:
Fact Check
We carefully analysed all the available video footage of the visits of political leaders to LNJP hospital to meet the injured survivors. We were able to locate the particular patient in them.
Amit Shah met the blast survivors around 9:24 pm. In the footage from his visit, we could locate the patient in question wearing a white inner vest, jeans, and a shoe on his right foot. His left foot is wrapped in a bandage covered with a protective plastic, and his left arm appears to have an ointment applied, implying initial first-aid care.
Later that night, around 11:10 pm, Rekha Gupta visited the hospital. In the video of this interaction, the same patient is now dressed in a patient’s cloak. While he continues to wear a shoe on his right foot, a bandage on his ankle is visible on his left foot, with blood stains on his heel. An intravenous channel is visible on his right arm, indicating that the patient was undergoing treatment.
On November 11, Praveen Khandelwal, BJP MP from Chadni Chowk, also visited LNJP hospital and met the patients. Images shared by NDTV show that the patient has been moved to bed number 3. Here, he is seen wearing the patient’s cloak, with a plastered left hand, and ointment applied to parts of his face.
When Narendra Modi visited the LNJP hospital the next day, on November 12, he, too, met the same patient. At this point, he was wearing a patient’s gown. His left hand remained plastered, and his left foot was wrapped in a bandage above the ankle. Injuries were also visible on the left side of his face.
During our investigation, we found a ‘treatment summary’ shared by some users on social media. It is apparently issued by the LNJP hospital for Mohd. Shahnawaj, who was admitted at 7.30 pm on November 10, 2025, as an injured survivor of the Delhi bomb blast. We are not attaching the document here in view of the patient’s privacy.
Taking a cue from this, Alt News reached out to Mohammad Shahnabaz, who confirmed that he was the man seen in the pictures. Shahnabaz, a 38-year-old cab driver, told us he had been in his taxi approximately 10 meters away from the car that exploded. The impact of the blast was so powerful, he said, that he was thrown several feet away, and his vehicle went up into flames.
“There was a massive explosion. Its impact was so strong that I was flung nearly 7 feet away from my car. My car caught fire. My shirt was burnt. My face got scorched and burned. Shards of glass were embedded in my body. My ears went numb for almost 15 minutes. I had inhaled so much of the toxic smoke that I began vomiting. A few locals pulled me away, gave me water, and, because I was bleeding so much, they helped me into the ambulance when it arrived. That’s how I reached LNJP hospital.”
Shahnabaz mentioned that the number of injured survivors outnumbered the available doctors at the hospital when he had been taken in. He said, “They were examining each patient one by one, so it took time. But everyone received first aid.” He also described the treatment he had undergone. “My left leg was bandaged, and my left hand had developed burn blisters, so the doctors applied ointment. But later, my leg was still bleeding, so the bandage was removed to assess the injury. It was discovered that a metal fragment had pierced my leg. It was extracted, and the wound was bandaged again.”
According to Shahnabaz, Amit Shah was among the first senior leaders to meet the survivors shortly after they arrived at the hospital. “Amit Shah was the first one to visit us. Later that night, CM visited us. After this, my hand was bandaged”, he said.
He clarified that he underwent an X-ray, after which he was shifted to bed number 3.
“My hand was severely burned and is still bandaged. Our hospital clothes are changed daily,” he mentioned.
Shahnabaz categorically denied the allegations that his plaster or bandages were fabricated as part of any publicity stunt.
Shahnabaz also expressed deep concerns about his and his family’s future. The car he drove was his only source of livelihood, which was destroyed in the explosion. “My car is completely destroyed. It was the only source of my income. How will I recover from this loss? And who will take the responsibility for this devastation?” he asked.
To sum up, the Delhi blast survivor seen in images shared by AAP leader Saurabh Bharadwaj confirmed to Alt News that the photos political leaders including the Delhi CM and Prime Minister Modi meeting him at LNJP Hospital were not staged. Available video footage analysed by us matches his testimony and there are no discrepancies.
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