Fact Check: Photo Of Chittoor Encounter Passed Off As Hyderabad Encounter

The four accused in the Hyderabad Rape Case were killed in an alleged encounter by the Telangana Police in Shadnagar on the outskirts of Hyderabad when they tried to escape while Police was trying to recreate the crime scene at the spot where they burnt the vet’s body. As the news came out on mainstream and social media, people broke out into a celebratory mood. Hashtags such as #HumanRights, #TelanganaPolice and #Encounter are trending on Twitter. A few Twitter users shared a photograph of and claim it to be of the recent photograph of the police encounter.

With this #Encounter th police in india gets licence that whenever a crime is reported, there's media outcry, pick few men put them in remand, kill them & close the file.
Feminist: Happy
Media reporting: Over
Judiciary: Doesn't have to bother anymore.
Political pressure: Finished pic.twitter.com/oJz6SVXjEG

— Amit Lakhani (@TheAmitLakhani) December 6, 2019

This action was necessary for some people of india who always think that they can do anything with women or girls into india #Encounter pic.twitter.com/2mYoLy0yyO

— @sidhujot (@sidhujot6) December 6, 2019

#Encounter
We want justice ko Ike this. We are with police pic.twitter.com/DOiIYorezi

— Bharat Chaudhary (@bkhindu) December 6, 2019

Fact Check

On doing a reverse image search on Google and Yandex, we found that this photo is in no way related to the Hyderabad encounter. In fact, the image is from Chittoor encounter, a four-year-old incident when twenty woodcutters from Tamil Nadu were shot dead in an alleged encounter by Police Officials for cutting sandalwood trees in the Seshachalam Forest, located in Andhra Pradesh’s Chittoor District. This incident took place in 2015. The search results come as Sandalwood Smugglers killed in Karnataka.’ but on further searching the results, we got the actual story.

The image given above has been analysed to prove the same.

The Andhra Pradesh Police Logo can be clearly shown in the photograph, which has been compared with the Telangana Police logo as well.

Moreover, the time of the day in the photograph is being shown is at around noon or afternoon because of the intensity of the sunlight as well as the position of the shadows of the people in the photographs. Hyderabad encounter took place in the early hours of December 6.

Conclusion

The above photograph being circulated with claims that it shows the encounter of the four accused is not at all connected to the event and is misleading.

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Also Read: Fact Check: Photo Of Chittoor Encounter Passed Off As Hyderabad Encounter