Yogi Spoke in Favour of Hathras Accused? No, Bulletin Is Altered

The bulletin has been morphed to attribute the quote to Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath.

(Photo Courtesy: Facebook/Altered by The Quint)

An altered template of Hindi news channel Aaj Tak’s bulletin is being circulated to falsely claim that Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath has said that "Thakurs can make a mistake" in connection with the alleged gang-rape and murder of the 19-year-old Dalit girl in Hathras.

CLAIM

Several users on Facebook shared a screenshot of the bulletin which read “ठाकुरो का खून गर्म है, ठाकुरो से गलतिया हो जाती है: योगी”. [Translation: Thakurs can make a mistake: Yogi].

An archived version of the post can be seen here.

The post has been shared by multiple users on Facebook.

An archived version of the post can be found here.

An archived version of the post can be found here.

An archived version of the post can be found here.

WHAT WE FOUND OUT

We noticed that the colour of the text next to Yogi’s image on the breaking news template was different from the rest of the template, this raised a red flag.

Next, we noticed that the ticker line was about the suspension of the SP and DSP of Hathras, which hinted at the fact that the template could be from yesterday as the news came late in the evening on Friday, 2 October.

Following this, we used Twitter’s advance search and looked for Aaj Tak’s bulletin from last evening. We came across a bulletin which was uploaded at 8:54 pm.

On comparing the two images, one can notice that the sponsor ad, text at the bottom of the screen, Yogi’s image and the breaking news template are the same. The only difference is in the text which has been added to attribute the quote to Yogi.

All the similarities have been highlighted. 

Evidently, an altered template of Aaj Tak’s bulletin is being shared to claim that Yogi spoke in favour of the accused. However, it must be noted that Adityanath is facing widespread anger and outrage over the handling of the case, as Opposition leaders and citizens demand his resignation.

(With inputs from SM HoaxSlayer)

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