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| - Fact Check: Picture of Yogi watching Hathras victim's 'live' cremation is morphed
An image is going viral on social media with the claim that Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath is watching live the forced cremation of the Hathras gang-rape victim.
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India Today Fact Check
This is a photoshopped image. The original image shows Yogi speaking to the victim’s family via video-conferencing.
The body of a 19-year-old woman from Hathras in Uttar Pradesh, who died two weeks after being brutalised, was cremated in the wee hours of September 30 by police. The woman’s family alleged police forcefully carried out the cremation against their will and after locking them up inside their house.
The incident led to widespread condemnation, and netizens have been seething at the ‘insensitivity’ of UP police. Pictures of the cremation at the dead of the night have spread like wildfire on social media. Another picture of UP chief minister Yogi Adityanath purportedly watching the cremation live has also gone viral.
The caption in Hindi along with the image translates to, “An incompetent chief minister is watching the live video of UP Police cremating the Hathras gang rape victim.”
India Today Anti Fake News War Room (AFWA) has found the claim to be false. This is a photoshopped image. The original picture is of Yogi video-conferencing with the victim’s family.
The archived versions of the posts can be seen here and here.
AFWA probe
A closer look at the viral image makes it clear that visuals of the cremation have been poorly superimposed on the laptop screen in front of Yogi. With the help of reverse image search and appropriate keywords, we found that the original image is of the CM holding a video-conference with the father of the Hathras victim.
According to reports, following nationwide anger over the Hathras incident and the way police cremated the body, the UP CM spoke to the girl’s father on September 30 and assured strict action against the accused.
Several media houses () have carried the original image, crediting it to news agency ANI. On September 30, ANI tweeted a cropped version of the original image with the caption, “Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath speaks to the family of #Hathras gang-rape victim, via video conferencing.”
Lucknow: Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath speaks to the family of #Hathras gang-rape victim, via video conferencing. pic.twitter.com/htIprJUk0W — ANI UP (@ANINewsUP) September 30, 2020
ANI also tweeted the father’s response () after the meeting.
“I spoke to CM Yogi today. He has assured us that we will get justice. It is true that we didn’t get to see our daughter. We are hopeful that we will get justice,” the father was quoted as saying.
The original picture of the CM’s video conference was also carried by India Today, NDTV and Asianet News on September 30.
To protect the identity of the victim’s family, the laptop screen was blurred by ANI and other media houses. However, it is clear that the image shows Yogi speaking to the Hathras victim’s family and not watching her cremation live.
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