Fact Check: Jubilee Hills bypoll - Congress leader Naveen Yadav behind Gopinath's death? No, e-paper clipping is fake
A Telugu e-paper clipping claiming that Congress candidate Naveen Yadav killed BRS MLA Maganti Gopinath is circulating on social media ahead of the Jubilee Hills bypoll.
By - M Ramesh Naik
Claim:The e-paper clipping claims that Congress candidate Naveen Yadav is accused of killing former BRS MLA Maganti Gopinath, as revealed by the State Intelligence Police.
Fact:The claim is false. NewsMeter found that the viral e-paper clipping is fabricated and not published by real media outlets.
Hyderabad: As the voting for the Jubilee Hills by-election is underway, an image of a Telugu e-paper clipping resembling a real newspaper front page is circulating widely on social media.
The clipping carries a bold headline in Telugu: “Who killed Gopinath - Naveen Yadav?” and features a photograph of Congress poll candidate Naveen Yadav and images of CCTV footage inside a building.
It also bears the logo of ‘Varthalu Velugu’ dated Monday, November 10, 2025, and includes a website link - https://epaper.varthalvelugu.
An X user shared the clipping with some points from the e-paper as the caption.(Archive)
The alleged report claims that State Intelligence Police revealed sensational details before the media and accused Naveen Yadav of involvement in the death of BRS MLA Maganti Gopinath, who passed away earlier this year.
According to the viral clipping, the police suspect that Naveen Yadav planned to kill Gopinath to become MLA and was seen in CCTV footage at AIG Hospital, where Gopinath was admitted. It also makes several dramatic claims, such as Naveen Yadav bursting crackers before the news of Gopinath’s death, being in contact with hospital staff and even being congratulated by Gopinath’s mother.
The by-election in Jubilee Hills constituency was necessitated due to the death of sitting BRS MLA Maganti Gopinath. The BRS party has announced the late MLA’s wife, Maganti Sunitha, as its candidate.
Fact Check
NewsMeter examined the viral e-paper clipping and found that it is fabricated and was not published by any credible Telugu newspaper.
A keyword search across major Telugu dailies and their official e-paper portals showed no such report about Naveen Yadav or any statement from the State Intelligence Police.
We then verified the Prabhata Velugu e-paper dated October 10 by going through all its pages. We didn’t find the viral clipping.
The design, fonts and layout used in the viral clipping closely imitate genuine newspapers. However, several inconsistencies reveal that they were digitally fabricated:
- The web link mentioned in the viral image leads to a non-functional or blank page.
- The logo and design style differ from the actual Varthalu Velugu e-paper layout.
- The content uses exaggerated, sensational phrases not in line with mainstream editorial tone.
Where are the CCTV images from?
Using reverse image search, we traced the CCTV image seen in the clipping (showing a man entering a hospital elevator) to Shutterstock, a stock footage platform.
The video, titled “Busy hospital hallway: Diverse doctors, professional medics, nurses and patients walking. Male physician gets into elevator,” was uploaded on December 9, 2023.
This confirms that the CCTV image in the viral clipping was lifted from stock footage and not from any real surveillance recording at AIG Hospital.
Furthermore, Telangana Police and the Intelligence Department have issued no statement or press note regarding any investigation into Gopinath’s death or any allegations against Naveen Yadav.
Pattern of fake e-papers
This is not the first time fake e-paper clippings have circulated during elections. In the weeks leading up to the Jubilee Hills bypoll, similar fabricated newspaper images mimicking Eenadu, Andhra Jyothi, and Prabhata Velugu layouts went viral on social media with false claims about both BRS and Congress leaders.
Such fake clippings are created using templates of real newspapers, with minor alterations like changing headlines, adding prefixes (such as “Mana” or “Varthalu”) and inserting fabricated stories to look authentic.
The viral e-paper clipping titled “Who killed Gopinath – Naveen Yadav?” is fake.
No credible media outlet or police authority has reported or confirmed any such allegations. Hence, the claims made in the viral e-paper clipping are false.
Disclaimer: NewsMeter is not investigating Naveen Yadav’s involvement in the death of former BRS MLA Maganti Gopinath. This fact-check strictly addresses the authenticity of the viral e-paper clipping circulating on social media.
