A disturbing picture showing a tragic incident from Telangana during last year's lockdown has been revived and is being peddled with false captions suggesting that the photo is from Bihar.
BOOM found that the viral picture is from April 2020 and shows an incident from Telangana's Kamareddy district.
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The image is viral in the backdrop of a recent incident from Bihar wherein former MP and Jan Adhikar Party president Rajesh Ranjan (Pappu Yadav) had 'raided' a premise where over two dozen ambulances were lying unused.
According to a report published in India Today, Yadav had on May 7 found over two dozen ambulances reportedly purchased from the funds of BJP MP Rajiv Pratap Rudy lying unused on a premise. This triggered a major controversy as the state is already grappling with Coronavirus pandemic.
Interestingly, Yadav was taken into custody on May 11 for allegedly flouting the lockdown guidelines while visiting a Covid-19 ward at Patna Medical College and Hospital. Later, a case was registered against him in connection with a 1989 kidnapping incident, and he is currently under arrest for this case. Read more about it here.
The viral picture meanwhile shows a man carrying a dead body behind his bicycle. A Hindi caption with the picture translates to 'It seems people of Bihar somehow like this, carry a body on the cycle while the ambulance thief MP keeps the ambulances parked on his premises. And the person who breaks this news is sent to jail. Bihar's population does not like help'.
(Hindi: बिहार वालों को यही अच्छा लगता हैं ,लाश साइकिल पर ले कर घूमो ,एम्बुलेंस चोर सांसद एम्बुलेंस को अपने घर मे छुपा कर रखेगा, और उसका खुलासा करने वाला ही जेल चला गया। बिहार के जनता को सेवा भी अच्छी नही लगती।)
View the post below and check its archived version here.
The picture is viral with similar captions on Facebook.
Another post on Facebook claims in Hindi 'Here, bhakts meet digital India. Could not find ambulance for a body. Yogiji's sadness'.
(Hindi: लो भक्तों मिलो डिजिटल इंडिया से लाश के लिए नहीं मिली एम्बुलेंस योगी जी का दुःखद)
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Fact Check
BOOM did the reverse image search and found an article published in the Mumbai Mirror on April 19, 2020 carrying the same image.
The Mumbai Mirror article reported that the incident was from Kamareddy district in Telangana. The article further stated that the deceased was a worker who had died of prolonged illness and police had entrusted a sanitation worker with the job of shifting his body to a government hospital mortuary for postmortem.
The article further reported that 'The worker approached many vehicles requesting help to shift the dead body to hospital. Nobody came forward. Ambulances were not available'.
When no help came his way, the worker decided to carry the body to the hospital on his bicycle.
Another report published in Siasat in April 2020 carried the same image.
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BOOM also found a video of the incident uploaded on the YouTube channel of HMTV News on April 20, 2020.
The visuals are triggering in nature hence viewers' discretion is advised.
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