Puducherry Chief Minister V Narayanasamy paid tribute to a photo of a girl who has been mistaken for the victim of the Hathras alleged gangrape incident.
BOOM has previously debunked the same picture after it went viral with false claims that it shows the teenager who was allegedly sexually assaulted in Hathras. We found that the photo is from a 2018 incident when a woman allegedly died because of medical negligence in a Chandigarh hospital. Read BOOM's fact check here.
V Narayanasamy tweeted the images of him paying last respects to the woman who was reportedly gangraped by four men on September 14 and succumbed to her injuries on September 29 in Delhi's Safdarjung Hospital. The alleged brutality meted out to the Hathras woman and her hushed up funeral by the Uttar Pradesh Police in the wee hours of September 30 has sparked a massive outrage in the country.
The minister can be seen offering flowers to a photograph of a woman in pink salwar kameez, which was doing the rounds on social media as the image of the Hathras rape victim.
The same images are on Narayanasamy's Facebook page as well.
The woman's picture to which Narayanasamy pays tribute has text in Tamil that translates to, "Tearful tribute to the woman who was murdered by casteist goons".
The same image used by Narayanasamy has been viral on social media after news of the Hathras incident made news. Several verified Twitter handles and Facebook profiles shared the image along with the victim's name.
BOOM has not included the posts in accordance with Indian law that requires the identity of a rape victim should not be revealed.
After the photo went viral, we had reached out to the victim's brother who denied that the girl in the viral picture was his sister. The victim's brother told BOOM, "The picture of a girl standing in front of a field...no, she is not my sister."
Additionally, we found a Facebook post which said that the viral image is of a woman who allegedly died due to medical negligence in a Chandigarh hospital. The post further debunked the narrative which was viral with the image on social media - that it showed the rape victim.
The Hindi text with the image translates to "Please share this widely. Note: This photo that is being shared in connection with the Hathras case is of my sister who had died in a hospital in Chandigarh in 2018 due to negligence of the doctors. Back then, the police over there were not registering an FIR and we had used this photo for a campaign. The case is still undergoing in Chandigarh. It's an appeal to you to not share this photo in connection with the Hathras case. Thank you."
(Hindi: ज्यादा से ज्यादा शेयर करे । नोट- ये फोटो जो आप लोग हाथरस केस के साथ जोड़कर शेयर कर रहे है ये फोटो मेरे बहिन की है जिसकी मौत 2018 में चंडीगढ़ के हॉस्पिटल में हुई थी ।डॉक्टर की लापरवाही से उस वक़्त वहाँ की पुलिस FIR नही लिख रही थी तब हम लोगो ने ये फोटो डालकर कंपेन चलाया था। उसका केस चंडीगढ़ में चल रहा है कृपा आप लोगो से निवेदन है ये फोटो हाथरस केस के साथ जोड़कर न शेयर करे और शेयर होने से रोके। धन्यवाद)
BOOM found the same photo shared on the Facebook profile of a Ajay J Yadav to July 25, 2018 where he is appealing for justice for his sister and blame doctors for her death.
Also Read:Hathras Incident: Photo Of UP BJP Leader Peddled As Accused's Father