Images from an old incident that took place in Lilamba village in Rajasthan in 2015 are being circulated online with a claim that it shows the pregnant cow who was injured after she was allegedly fed food mixed with explosives in Himachal Pradesh’s Bilaspur.
The incident in Himachal comes days after the death of a pregnant elephant in Kerala’s Palakkad sparked a furore.
However, speaking to The Quint, the owner of the cow denied that the images were of his cow and added that his “cow is now in a stable condition”.
CLAIM
Gaurav Pandhi, national coordinator, digital communications and social media, Congress, too, shared the image claiming to be of the recent Himachal Pradesh incident. He further claimed that the cow has been “killed”.
Facebook users uploaded the images with the caption: “हिमाचल प्रदेश: गर्भवती गाय को खिलाया विस्फोटक, मुंह में फटने से बुरी तरह जख्मी, इंसान भी अब इंसानियत को खोकर लोग जानवर बनने लगे हैं. सरकार इस तरह हत्यारे लोगों के लिए कड़ी से कड़ी सजा का प्रावधान करे.”
(Translated: Himachal Pradesh: Pregnant cow was fed explosives, was severely injured due to the same, humans have lost humanity and have become animals. The government should impose strictly punish them)
Asiannet Newsable, too, carried the viral image in an article published on Sunday.
‘NOT MY COW’: OWNER ON VIRAL IMAGES
We got in touch with Gurdayal Singh, the owner of the injured cow, who said though his cow was injured, the images doing the rounds are not of his cow.
“This cow is not mine. My cow is brown in colour. Also, I am not the man you can seen in one of the images. I don’t even know who he is. But viral images definitely do not show my cow.”Gurdayal Singh, the owner of the cow
He further clarified that his cow has not died and that her condition is now stable. “The incident took place on 25 May and my cow also delivered a calf on 28 May,” he added.
Arun Chandel, a local Bilaspur reporter, too, corroborated the details and said that the cow seen in the images is not from the recent incident.
WHERE ARE THE VIRAL IMAGES FROM?
We found that a Facebook user had posted one of the viral images in 2015 and mentioned that the incident took place in Lilamba village in Raipur tehsil in Rajasthan’s Pali district.
Following this, we got in touch with Deputy Superintendent of Police, Suresh Kumar, Jaitaran, Pali district who confirmed that the images are from Rajasthan.
“These images are from Lilamba village in Raipur tehsil. It was an old case wherein a cow was loitering around the fields at night and ate something which had explosives.”Suresh Kumar, deputy superintendent of police, Jaitaran, Pali district
He further explained how the villagers used to keep explosives wrapped in wheat to keep the pigs away from their fields.
A local reporter, too, confirmed that the images are from Lilamba and corroborated with the aforementioned details. He further told that the incident was reported in Rajasthan Patrika in 2015.
IMAGES OF THE INJURED PREGNANT COW
The Quint also accessed the images of the pregnant cow who was injured in Himachal.
Cow injured in the Himachal Pradesh incident.
(Photo: Accessed by The Quint)
Further, we found out that News18 Himachal had aired a bulletin on Sunday in which the cow can be seen.
Bilaspur DSP Sanjay Sharma, while denying that the cow seen in the images is from Bilaspur, told The Quint that a case had been registered and one person had been arrested in relation to the recent incident and the person is in police remand till Tuesday, 9 June.
Evidently old images of an injured cow in Rajasthan were used to claim that they are from the recent Himachal Pradesh incident.
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