FACT CHECK: South Indian actor's picture shared as doctor who succumbed to Covid-19
By Newsmeter Network Published on 20 Sep 2020 7:33 AM GMT
Hyderabad: A picture is viral on social media with the claim that Dr. Vidhi, a gynecologist from Gujarat, has succumbed to Coronavirus. However, the image of the woman is of a South Indian actor, Samskruthy Shenoy.
A Facebook user posted the image of the actress and wrote, "Sad news from GUJRAT, RIP CORONA WARRIOR, Very Shocking !! We lost a young gem Dr. Vidhi Gynecologist, from Ahmedabad Succumbed to COVID 19 Great loss to the family. (sic)"
https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=1265517067143282&id=100010550015122
Fact check:
The claim is FALSE.
Dr. Vidhi, a gynecologist from Ahmedabad, succumbed to Covid-19 recently, however, the viral image shows the picture of south Indian actor Samskruthy Shenoy.
Newsmeter found a Facebook post by the actor Shenoy who stated that social media users falsely shared her picture with a fake claim.
"This is me, Samskruthy Shenoy Samy, aged 22, from Kochi. Some miscreants are spreading this photograph as that of a Corona warrior Dr Vidhi from Gujarat, who succumbed to Covid-19. It is kind of viral on Facebook and WhatsApp," she wrote.
Newsmeter performed a reverse image search and found that this picture was published in an article by 'News Bugz' in 2018 which posted the same picture.
Newsmeter found a post on Facebook that confirmed that Dr. Vidhi had succumbed to Coronavirus. The post, dated September 9, 2020, had the same text as that of viral posts and attributed the information to Dr Subham Kumari of the IMSO.
Therefore, the image used in the claims is false.
