Fact Check: Did students bring a leopard to protests in Bihar? Here is the truth

On July 25, the All-India Students’ Association called for a Bihar bandh to protest the NEET paper leak. The protest turned violent in several cities of the state, with incidents of stone pelting and vandalism. In Siwan, the police even reportedly opened fire.A video now going viral shows people carrying a leopard through the crowd. Allegedly, this was from a protest in Bihar. Sharing the video, an X user wrote, “Wild card entry at Bihar protest. #GenZWithBharat #NEET #Modi.”India Today Fact Check found that this video is from May 2026 and has nothing to do with the student protests in Bihar.OUR PROBEReverse-searching frames from the video led us to News18's YouTube channel. The news outlet shared the video on May 30. It did not provide any details. But this confirmed that the video is old. We also found the video shared on YouTube and Facebook by several people in May, stating that the wild animal was captured in Bihar’s Purnia. A subsequent keyword search led us to a report by ETV Bharat published on May 27. According to the report, the leopard was killed by the villagers in the Tikapatti police station area of Purnia. The wild animal was roaming in the village for three days, destroying agricultural fields and attacking livestock. It also attacked villagers, injuring three people.According to a May 28 report by Navbharat Times, the leopard killed two calves and a goat and also injured three villagers, spreading panic. Villagers in large numbers surrounded it and killed it after a long struggle. Local authorities recovered the carcass after the incident. Thus, we concluded that the video does not show students bringing a leopard to student protests in Bihar.- EndsPublished By: Aprameya RaoPublished On: Jul 26, 2026 17:19 IST