Kerala: Air India Plan crashed during landing at Kozhikode, Kerala, yesterday around 9 PM. The death toll has touched 19, including 2 onboard pilots. A Malayalam Daily news portal  Mathrubhumi News published a claim this morning that 40 passengers of crashed Air India (Dubai-Kozhikode) flight are tested Positive for COVID-19.

They tweeted “40 Flight Crash victims Test Positive for COVID 19”, archive.

The news went viral and even India Today’s anchor, Rajdeep Sardesai tweeted the news without verifying it. He later deleted the tweet and tweeted clarification referencing to his old tweet.

Many Twitter users shared the claim. here here here here.

FactO Check:

According to articles published by multiple mainstream media, only 2 deceased passengers are found COVID-19 positive. The district collector, Malappuram has also called the claim of 40 passengers being tested positive, baseless and fake.

Malayalam to English: “News that 40 passengers in the Air India flight crash in Kozhikode, tested Covid positive is fake” tweets district collector.

#FakeNews #CCJaccident #CalicutAirCrash #AirIndia #KozhikodeAirCrash @CMOKerala pic.twitter.com/Bmuuk9TWdq

— District collector, Malappuram (@CollectorMlpm) August 8, 2020

Conclusion: News that 40 passengers in the Air India flight crash in Kozhikode, tested Covid positive is fake and misleading.

Bengaluru: On 5th of August, PM Narendra Modi was in Ayodhya for Ram Mandir Bhoomi puja. A lot of people on social media celebrated the occasion, while some of them started making memes using the “Burnol” word, a widely used pun to troll someone on social media. The hashtags #BurnolSalesRaise and #BuronOutOfStock were trending in Twitter for sometime on Aug 5.

International Business Times India published an article with heading “This is how Burnol reacts to Shree Ram bhakts trending #BurnolSalesRise and #BurnolOutOfStock” . They wrote “In the backdrop of the historic Bhoomi Pujan in Ayodhya, the bosses of Burnol India were delighted over Shree toRam Bhakts trending #BurnolSalesRise and #BurnolOutOfStock on social media. Not only did they acknowledge the trend but also thanked them for doing so”. (Archive)

Facebook Post link: Here

IBT India claimed that “the bosses of Burnol India were delighted over Shree Ram Bhakts trending #BurnolSalesRise and #BurnolOutOfStock “, but what’s the truth? Did Burnol India is really happy about the trend?

FactO Check:

The article published by IBT India is based on a twitter account @Burnolindia. If we read the bio of the twitter handle, they have mentioned the word “Parody” 5 times, as many people are assuming that it’s the official account of Burnol India. (Archive)

And yes, there's no end to our stock. 😉 So there's no moment for #BurnolSalesRise & #BurnolOutOfStock !
Jab jab jalega, tab tab #Burnol hi chalega. Thank you, keep tweeting.❤️

— Burnol (@BurnolIndia) August 6, 2020

Please look at the bio of the parody account here. Burnol is owned by Dr Morepen brand, who does not have any social media account as per their website.

Conclusion: International Business Times India has written a story based on a Parody Twitter account. So the article is found to be false and misleading.

NOTE: We have tweeted to @IBT_India asking to delete/update the article as it is based on a parody account and waiting for a response.

Pakistan: While Muslims across the world were celebrating Eid-ul-Adha(Festival of Sacrifice), a video of a bull falling from a huge crane went viral over social media with a completely wrong narrative. The accident has been given a communal angle to target Muslims during Bakrid.

Asianet News website published an article with caption “cow dropped from crane to celebrate eid in Pakistan video goes viral” with a feature image “Cow Dropped from Crane; who is the animal?”, which they later deleted and update the story to “Cow carried by crane for sacrifice in Pakistan slips, falls to the ground; video goes viral.”. They quoted Tarek Fateh’s tweet with a misleading caption and cropped video.

A video posted by Hnalde Pak Hindus has got over 1.5M view and 3K RT. (Archive), the tweet talk about cruelty against cow.

My heart is crying after watching this video.

Sick cruel people! #Cruelty #Karachi #Pakistan pic.twitter.com/WDFSu1NqY0

— Pak Hindus (@PakHindus) August 1, 2020

The same video is also shared by Fake news peddler Tarek Fateh, with an inciting caption that got over 15K RT. (Archive)

Pakistanis 'celebrating' Eid by 'sacrificing' cows to please Allah.
pic.twitter.com/9vOLeUiMHI

— Tarek Fatah (@TarekFatah) August 1, 2020

It made people think that cows were actually being dropped to celebrate Eid.

and cow can be drop dead from height of the crane ,, this is not a news to post ,, @BDUTT

— HATES ANTI INDIANS ,, (@VastradRaju) August 4, 2020

Have you seen that one in which they drop the cow from a crane and do the Qurbani. So peaceful.

— Peter A. Jordanson (@scaryscarz) August 4, 2020

They also hoist the cow 50 foot in air and drop them. Just as stated in the Islamic sharia as punishment for homosexuals and LGBT

— Ajay Bathula (@blaykm) August 3, 2020

FactO Check:

The video which is shared across social media is cropped by the first 5-8 seconds, the part where a bull was being lifted from the terrace has been cropped from the actual video.

The viral video is from Karachi, surjani Sector 5D, the accident happened on 1st of AUG. The story was covered by multiple Pakistani news agencies. According to ARY news, the bull was being lifted off from the 2nd floor on the eve of Bakrid for Kurbani(Sacrifice) when it fell off accidentally. It’s very common in Karachi that people keep bull/cow on the terrace for years and raise them for Kurbani.

We also found another video posted on 24th July  2020, a bull was brought down safely with the help of a crane, there are many such videos of bull being brought down from the terrace during Bakrid. Here, here. People living in apartments or second or 3rd floors, they usually bring the calf and raise them for years for Kurbani and bring them down a day before Eid Al Adha with the help of Crane.

Conclusion: The incident took place when a bull was being brought down with the help of a crane. As per 24 News HD and ARY news, the animal was a bull not a cow as claimed by OpIndia, Tarek Fateh, and many others. The animal wasn’t dropped intentionally as claimed by many in social media.