FALSE ALERT: Photo of CM Yogi watching Hathras victim’s live cremation is digitally fabricated

CLAIM
The photo of Uttar Pradesh CM Yogi Adityanath sitting in front of a laptop is shared with a claim that he is watching the live cremation of the 19-year-old victim of Hathras, whose last rites were hastily performed in the dead of night, before week. The Dalit woman’s family alleged that the local police forced them to perform the last rites.
The photo is shared with this claim on social media platforms.
Twitter user Javed Pathan posted the photo with this claim.

The Facebook page Jai Bhim Channel also shared the photo in a video to attack CM Yogi and PM Modi.

TRUE
The photo is a digitally altered version of the original image in which Yogi speaks to the family of the gang rape victim Hathras via video conference on a laptop.
VERIFICATION AND METHODOLOGY
Using the reverse image search, we found the original photo posted by various credible news portals.
It was tweeted by the ANI news agency on September 30, 2020.

“Lucknow: Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath speaks to family of #Hathras gang rape victim, via videoconference,” reads the text accompanying the original photo.
Looking at the original photo, it is clear that the cremation images have been overlaid on the laptop screen in front of Yogi.
The cremation footage was taken from a photo tweeted by journalist Tanushree Pandey on September 30, 2020. She has been reporting live from Hathras for the past few days.
“Hathras’s victim burned himself against the will of his family. The police locked relatives and locals inside the house and forcibly burned the body. The family could not even see their daughter for the last time. If the torture inflicted on the girl was horrible. This is beyond humanity. We are done ”, said the tweet published by her.

VERDICT
Times Fact Check has found that the claim that CM Yogi saw the cremation of Hathras’ gang rape victim live is false. The photo used to make this claim is digitally transformed.