News Edition 24 Desk: A screenshot of an alleged news piece uploaded by news summary mobile application Inshorts is massively viral on social media. It claims that a Kerala couple passed away after refusing an ambulance with a saffron Hanuman sticker.
Indu Makkal Katchi, a Hindu nationalist party in Tamil Nadu, shared the image writing, “Unbelievable if true, someone please verify”.
The summary of the report said, “In a bizarre incident, M Stalin and his wife Jaycee who were gasping for oxygen refused an ambulance when they saw a saffron Hanuman sticker on the vehicle. According to eyewitnesses, they passed away shaking within minutes of each other.”
A Google reverse image search of the image used in the viral Inshorts screenshot led to an article published by Hindustan Times on May 10, 2021. The image is shared with a caption, “Family members and undertakers carry the body of a victim who died of the Covid-19 coronavirus at an open-air crematorium set up for the coronavirus victims inside a defunct granite quarry on the outskirts of Bangalore on May 8, 2021, as India recorded more than 4,000 coronavirus deaths in a day for the first time. (Manjunath Kiran / AFP)”
A representative from Inshorts told fact checking website Alt News, “This news piece hasn’t been published by us on Inshorts. This is a doctored image.” Hence, a fake screenshot of Inshorts has gone viral.