Some social media users have claimed that a woman died after suffering a heatstroke in Amethi while she was waiting in a queue to avail benefits of the Congress's Mahalakshmi scheme, which promises a monthly deposit of Rs. 8500 in the bank account of the oldest woman in a BPL family.
Verified X user Amitabh Chaudhary (@MithilaWaala) posted this news on June 8, drawing attention to how the woman lost her life because of false promises peddled by Congress, besides urging the Election Commission of India to take cognizance of the matter.
The user, Amitabh Chaudhary (@MithilaWaala), has been found amplifying misinformation several times in the past.
Another verified X user, (@RealBababanaras), tweeted the 'piece of news' with the same claim, blaming Congress for the alleged death. At the time of the writing of this article, the post has racked up almost 2.4 lakh views and has been re-shared more than 5,000 times.
This user, @RealBababanaras, too, shares communal misinformation on a regular basis.
The claim is also viral on Facebook, with several users indicating that Congress was to be blamed for the reported loss of life.
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Fact Check
We ran a relevant keyword search on Google and found an IANS report where some women said that they had assembled near the Congress because they were supposed to receive Rs 8,500. However, we could not find any verified media report about any loss of life related to this.
Moreover, we came across a clarification from the official handle of Amethi Police where they explicitly stated that their investigation into the rumoured death of a woman near the Congress Party office had revealed that the entire matter was misleading.
The English translation of this statement reads: "Investigation into the matter in question has not revealed the death of any woman near the Congress office. Please do not spread misleading news."
Hence, it is clear that the viral claims on social media about the death of a woman due to the excessive heat while she was waiting in a queue near the Congress office to collect Rs. 8,500 is false.
Prantik Ali is an intern at Alt News.
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