Injured Woman in Viral Image Misidentified as Actor Poonam Pandey

The woman is one 'Asha Pandey' or 'Arshi Pandey' as identified by media reports and the incident dates back to 2018.

An image of a woman in a hospital is being shared on social media to falsely claim that she is actor Poonam Pandey who has alleged that her husband Sam Bombay assaulted her.

(Photo: Altered by The Quint)

An image of a woman in a hospital is being shared on social media to claim that she is actor Poonam Pandey who has alleged that her husband Sam Bombay assaulted her.

However, the woman in the image is one 'Asha Pandey' or 'Arshi Pandey' as identified by different media reports and the incident which dates back to 2018 is from Uttarakhand's Haldwani.

CLAIM

The claim identifies the woman as actor Poonam Pandey and takes a dig at her for making controversial remarks on Hindu religion and then marrying Sam Bombay who allegedly brutally beat her.

You can view the archived version here.

(Source: Facebook/ Screenshot)

Several Twitter, Facebook and Instagram users shared the image of the woman who was hospitalised, identifying her as actor Poonam Pandey and the archived version of the posts can be viewed here, here, and here.

WHAT WE FOUND

We conducted a Google reverse image search on the viral image and came across a YouTube video uploaded in September 2018. The video showed the same woman as seen in the image in question and was titled as: 'Poonam pandey | arsha pandey hospital viral video.(sic)'

A YouTube video had carried the viral visual in 2018.

(Photo: YouTube/ Altered by The Quint)

Taking a cue from here, we searched on Google with relevant keywords and came across a report by Dainik Jagran published on 15 September, 2018 that carried the viral image.

A Dainik Jagran report used the viral image in 2018.

(Photo: Dainik Jagran/ Altered by The Quint)

The article identified the woman in the image as 'Arshi Pandey', daughter of one Poonam Pandey who was then killed in Uttarakhand's Haldwani. The caption along with the image mentioned that 'Arshi Pandey' was discharged from a hospital after 18 days.

A Times of India report published on 28 August, 2018 stated that few unidentified people had allegedly entered the residence of a businessman Lakshmi Dutt Pandey in a robbery attempt in Haldwani's Gorapadav.

The incident led to the death of his wife Poonam Pandey and their pet dog while his daughter 'Asha Pandey' sustained injuries and was taken to a hospital.

Meanwhile, actor Poonam Pandey had alleged that her husband Sam Bombay, who has now been arrested by the Mumbai police, assaulted her and has reportedly suffered injuries to her head, eyes and face. As per ANI, she has also been hospitalised.

Evidently, the woman in the viral image has been misidentified as actor Poonam Pandey.

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