TCN News - TwoCircles.net

By Siddhant Mohan, TwoCircles.net

Over the past few years, one thing that has become crystal clear is that for the right-wing media, photoshop is one of the most potent weapons to spread fear and false information among members of social media. In fact, thanks to them there are now websites dedicated solely to dispelling the ocean of myth that they create every day. Today at TwoCircles.net, we came to know that we had also been targeted, albeit not directly.

It seems that an original image from one of our stories published three years back is being circulated for nefarious purposes with the aim of creating hatred towards Muslims.

Abdullah Juber (38), along with Nur Ahmed and Tarique Akhter, was acquitted by Kolkata court on February 26, 2014, after being falsely imprisoned for terror charges for eight years. Arrested from his home state Jharkhand on January 30, 2006, Juber was accused of being involved in anti-national activities and terror outfit Lashkar-e-Toiba.

But even after getting freedom from all the charges after spending eight years behind the bars, Juber’s image has become another pawn at the hands of Hindutva trolls in their attempts to portray Muslims as violent fanatics.

Juber's photograph which was exclusively captured by TwoCircles.net is being photoshopped and being circulated online with a quote which Juber never said. Have a look at the photograph below which is being circulated-

And the original image, over which the morphed image is based is right below -

Below are some screenshots of few of the many posts, where the above-mentioned image is being circulated widely.

Apart from these, we found some Google Plus accounts where the photograph is also being shared. One of them can be seen here and the other, here.

To support our claim that this photo is a photoshopped image, we have pulled the EXIF data for the photo which shows the photo was taken on February 26, 2014, at 8.03 PM.

But one must wonder that what these accounts would have found in the profile picture of Abdullah Juber. This is explained by an IT expert based in Hyderabad, "They would have found it perfect Muslim guy with a beard and skullcap looking directly into the camera," he says.

"Moreover, the straight photographs with flash catches attention easily," he added.

After being accused of association with LeT, Juber was trialled under IPC sections 120B, 121, 122, 123, 124A and 126. He was also accused of possessing 32 detonators, but Police failed to provide any admissible credible evidence against the accusations.

Back then, TwoCircles.net did an extensive report on the case with the help of its Kolkata correspondent Zaidul Haque, which can be read here.

After being acquitted from the case, Juber came back to Jamia Salafia at Varanasi to complete his education for being an Aalim.

Juber told TwoCircles.net, "Even after I am innocent in the eyes of judiciary and constitution, I think mob is not going to spare me. But I have to make it clear that I have not said anything like this ever in my life, even I cannot think if I would say such."

"Now I live with my wife and kids. If my photo continue to be circulated like this, someone may attack on me or even kill me on the road even after Indian constitution believes in my innocence," said Juber.