Old image falsely shared as Tejashwi Yadav leads protest march for woman burnt alive in Bihar

Recently, reports of a 20-year old Muslim woman burnt alive in Bihar’s Vaishali emerged. The woman was admitted to the hospital in critical condition. She succumbed to her injuries on November 15 while undergoing treatment. Before dying, however, the deceased had allegedly named her perpetrators who hailed from the Hindu community. An FIR was lodged against the accused on November 2.

Following this, people began sharing a picture of RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav participating in a candlelight march. They are suggesting that Yadav joined protestors to demand justice for the Muslim woman. The accompanying message reads, “@yadavtejashwi has taken to the streets in a candlelight march to demand justice for Bihar’s daughter Gulnaz.”

Twitter user Pooja Meena shared the viral image on November 16, which garnered more than 150 retweets at the time of writing. (archive link)

बिहार की बेटी गुलनाज़ के इंसाफ के लिए @yadavtejashwi भैया कैंडल मार्च के साथ सड़क और उतर गए हैं।
तेजस्वी भैया के आने से इस लड़ाई में मज़बूती मिलेगी और क्या नीतीश सरकार बच्ची को इंसाफ दिला सकेगी।
#JusticeforGulnaz #नीतीश_कुमार_शर्म_करो#JusticeForGulnaz pic.twitter.com/vjafrIrsn4

— pooja Meena (@poojaQueen15) November 16, 2020

Similarly, several Facebook users are also sharing the picture with an identical claim. This post by Facebook user Rafique Ahmed had been shared more than 300 times at the time of writing. (archive link)

Photo from 2018

We noticed that no one in the picture can be seen sporting a mask. This indicates that it is not recent. Performing a simple reverse image led us to a report by Zee News stating that the photo is from December 2018. It also mentions that Tejashwi Yadav was organizing a march in protest of the declining law and order situation in Bihar. Shortly before this, local businessman Gunjan Khemka was murdered. The march was organized due to the public outrage generated by this incident.

The report also contains a tweet by the politician himself in which he explains the reason behind the candlelight march. His original Hindi tweet states, “In protest of the murder of businessman Gunjan Khemka and the increasing crime in Bihar, there was a peaceful candlelight march this evening in Patna organized by various social, business and industrial organizations. The march was from Patna’s JP Golambar to Dakbangla intersection.”

व्यवसायी गुंजन खेमका की हत्या और बिहार में बढ़ते अपराध के विरोध में आज शाम पटना में विभिन्न सामाजिक, व्यावसायिक और औधोगिक संगठनों द्वारा आयोजित कैंडल मार्च में भाग लेकर शांतिपूर्ण विरोध प्रदर्शन किया। कैंडल मार्च पटना के जेपी गोलंबर से डाकबंगला चौराहे तक निकाला गया। pic.twitter.com/bUg7wB25Yc

— Tejashwi Yadav (@yadavtejashwi) December 24, 2018

We found this image on Yadav’s official Facebook page as well.

To sum it up, a 2018 photo of Tejashwi Yadav was circulated online with false claims that he took out a candle march to demand justice for a young Muslim woman who was burnt alive recently.