Fabricated news report shared to claim Congress supporters burnt Telangana CM's effigy

What is the claim?

A purported screenshot of a report by the Hyderabad-based mobile news app, Way2News, is being shared on X (formerly Twitter) with the claim that angered by his comments regarding late Y.S. Rajasekhar Reddy (popularly remembered as YSR), Congress supporters in the south Indian state of Telangana allegedly burnt the effigy of the newly-elected Chief Minister Revanth Reddy. The news clip carries an image where a group of people, some of whom are donning Congress scarves, are seen burning an effigy. Archived versions of posts sharing the clip can be viewed here, here, and here. 

The title of the purported news report, when translated from Telugu to English, reads, “Revanth Reddy’s effigy burnt.” According to the purported news report, Congress and YSR fans burnt the effigy of Congress leader Revanth Reddy in various places across Telangana. 

The purported screenshot surfaced after Reddy’s interview with the Telugu channel ABN-Andhrajyothy appeared on January 6. Reddy was asked his opinion on poaching elected legislatures from an opposition party. The interviewer took the example of former Andhra Pradesh chief minister and Congress leader Y.S. Rajasekhar Reddy poaching legislators from opposition parties after he secured victory for the second time in 2009. In response, Reddy said, “There are natural limits to the deeds we do. Be it YSR or KCR (K Chandrasekhar Rao, the former chief minister of Telangana).” Some viewers opined that Reddy made an indirect reference to how YSR died in a plane crash in 2009 in his reply.

Screenshot of the viral X post (Source: X/Modified by Logically Facts)

However, Way2News did not carry any report about Congress supporters allegedly burning effigies of CM Reddy.

What did we find?

We found several discrepancies in the screenshot circulating online. The font of the text in the screenshot is different from what Way2News uses in its reports.

The link mentioned in the viral post also directed us to an article published on August 10, 2023, which is completely unrelated to the alleged incident in question. The URL took us to a cricket-related report headlined “Batters who scored the highest in the List-A cricket (translated from Telugu).”

Discrepancies in the fake article and the original article that the hyperlink in the image redirected to (Source: X/Way2News/Screenshots)

We also found that the photo used in the purported article is over a year old and dates back to January 2023. Local news website ‘Andhrajyothy’ had carried the same image in a report published on January 2, 2023. The report said that Congress members burnt the effigy of the then-Bharath Rashtra Samithi government in Karimnagar town to protest against the arrest of their leaders, including Revanth Reddy and Jeevan Reddy.

Original image published in Andhrajyothy in January 2023 (Source: Andhrajyothy/Screenshot)

Additionally, Way2News clarified on X on January 8, that the now-viral news report is fabricated and the outlet did not publish such an article.

The verdict

A fabricated news report was shared to claim that Congress supporters burnt the effigy of Telangana Chief Minister Revanth Reddy for his comments concerning the late Y.S. Rajasekhar Reddy. Therefore, we mark the claim as fake.