Zee News, TV9 News and ABN Telugu misreported a 2015 photo of a police encounter on woodcutters caught smuggling as the police encounter of the four accused in the Hyderabad vet rape-murder case. BOOM found that the image viral as the encounter of the four accused, is from an incident in Andhra Pradesh where the police killed 20 wood cutters.
The photo showing policemen in an open field watching over three dead bodies is viral with claims of 'Hyderabad encounter' and 'Congratulations Telangana police, hailing the police for the encounter of the accused who gang raped and murdered a 26-year-old veterinary doctor.
The photo went viral hours after the Cyberabad police revealed that the four accused - Mohammed Areef, Jollu Shiva, Jollu Naveen and Chintakunta Chennakeshavulu were killed in an encounter in the wee hours of Friday. The accused were arrested on November 29 for gangraping, murdering a young doctor in Telangana. DCP Prakash Reddy told The News Minute that the accused snatched the guns of the policemen and were killed in the ensuing crossfire between them and the police personnel.
Viral on Twitter
Ashish Merkhed, former head of social media for Maharashtra Bharatiya Janata Party, shared the viral image congratulating Telangana police for the encounter.
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Indhuja Ravichandran, a Tamil actress shared the viral image congratulating the police on Twitter, with the caption, "JUSTICE FINALLY SERVED ITS DUTY !!! Love you "the brave Hyderabad government" Now rest in peace"
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An entertainment portal named IndiaGlitz, shared the viral image with the photograph of the top cop who is handling the Hyderabad vet's rape case, Cyberabad police chief VC Sajjanar asking people for their views.
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News Channels Misreports
media outlets like Zee News, TV9 Bharatvarsh, T9 Gujarati, and ABN Telugu aired the 2015 photo from an unrelated case as the police encounter of the four accused in the Hyderaad vet rape and murder accused.
Zee News aired the viral image in their story about the police encounter with the watermark 'First on Zee News'. The same image can be spotted at the 4.50 seconds timestamp in the report by Zee News.
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TV9 Gujarat, a Gujarati news channel and its sister channel TV9 Bharatvarsh, aired in Hindi also used the same old image claiming it is an exlcusive picture from the police encounter of the four accused in the Hyderabad rape case.
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ABN Telugu, a Telgu news channel also broadcasted the same old image with a report on the Hyderabad police encounter of the rape accused. (Click here to view)
FACT-CHECK
BOOM found that the image is from 2015, when the Andhra Pradesh police shot dead 20 woodcutters trying to smuggle red sander wood from the state and is not related to the police encounter of the accused in the Hyderabad vet's rape and murder.
Using reverse image search, we found an April 2015 report by The Hindu which had published the same image for a story, '20 woodcutters from TN gunned by A.P. police'. According to the report, on April 7, 2015, 20 woodcutters from Tamil Nadu, found felling the endangered red sander wood trees, were killed by the police in an extra judicial manner.
The report says that the the Anti-Smuggling taskforce found over 100 woodcutters felling red sanderwood trees and carrying logs in the Seshachalam forest at the foot of the Tirumala hills. When asked to surrender, the woodcutters allegedly rained stones and hurled sickles at the team, injuring some of them."
BOOM has previously debunked misinformation circulating on social media post the rape and murder of the 26-year-old veterinarian. (Click here)