All the four accused in the Hyderabad rape and murder case were killed in an encounter in the early hours on Friday, 6 December, when the police had taken them to recreate the crime at the spot where it took place.
Following the news of the encounter, photographs started doing the rounds on the internet which claims to show the visuals of the encounter.
The caption alongside the photograph read, “Everyday we start our day reading, viewing news of rapes, gang rapes, then murders. But today, its the best news to start the day. All policemen should be awarded. #Encounter #********* #HyderabadPolice. (sic).”
Note: The Quint has edited the tweet to remove the name of the victim.
News channel TV9 Gujarati too, tweeted out the same visuals.
The same tweet has been posted by several other users on Twitter and Facebook too.
TRUE OR FALSE?
False.
The image is from 2015 when 20 woodcutters from Tamil Nadu were killed in an alleged encounter in Andhra Pradesh’s Seshachalam forest for felling red sanders. The anti-smuggling taskforce had found nearly 100 woodcutters felling and carrying logs of the trees.
They were reportedly asked to surrender but they started raining stones and sickles at the team.
WHAT WE FOUND OUT
On conducting a simple reverse image search on Google, we were directed to an article published by the English daily The Hindu in 2015. The article headlined ‘20 woodcutters from TN gunned by AP police’ carried the same image.
Clearly, an old picture has been used by multiple users and even a news channel without verification to claim that the image is from the encounter that happened in Hyderabad.
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