Shortly after a stampede broke out in Tirupati in the southern Indian state of Andhra Pradesh, a 45-second video was shared on social media, claiming to show one of the victims. The viral video shows a man lifting a body off a stretcher, carrying it on his shoulders, and climbing onto the pillion seat of a motorcycle, leaving what resembles a hospital premises.
Claim:
An X user shared this video on January 9, 2025, with a caption in Hindi roughly translating to: “A father could not even get an ambulance to carry his son’s body??? The innocent child lost his life in the Tirupati accident.” At the time of writing this check, the post had garnered over 13,900 views, 92 reposts, and 205 likes. Several other users have shared this video with similar claims accompanied by the hashtag #TirupatiStampede. Archive links to such posts can be found here, here, and here.
Six people have been declared dead, and 40 others were injured in the stampede on January 8, 2025. The tragedy unfolded when a large number of devotees gathered to obtain tokens (tickets) for the Vaikunta Dwara Darshanam, an annual event at the famous Tirupati temple, where devotees queued to see the deity’s idol from the northern entrance.
However, we found that while the video is from Tirupati, it was recorded in April 2022, and is unrelated to the recent Tirupati stampede.
Investigation:
A reverse image search of the viral video led us to an X post (archived here) shared by the news outlet The New Indian Express (TNIE) Andhra Pradesh on April 26, 2022. According to the post’s caption, the video shows a boy who died due to kidney failure at Ruia Government Hospital in Tirupati. His father was reportedly forced to transport his son’s body on a motorcycle to his village, located 90 kilometers away after private ambulance operators refused to lower their charges.
We also found the same video shared on X (archived here) by Chandrababu Naidu, who was the opposition leader at the time of the incident and is now the chief minister of Andhra Pradesh. In his post, Naidu criticized the health infrastructure under the previous government, which was run by YS Jagan Mohan Reddy. This indicates that the video has been online since April 2022.
Upon conducting a Google search, we found more details related to this incident. A report by The Hindu stated that the video was captured at the Sri Venkateshwara Ramnarain Ruia Government General Hospital in Tirupati. According to the report, the video shows a farm laborer who was forced to carry his son’s body on his shoulder while riding pillion on a motorcycle because he could not afford an ambulance. A Deccan Herald report elaborated that ambulance drivers demanded Rs. 10,000 from the father to transport the child’s body to their village located 90 kilometers away from the hospital. The report added that the 10-year-old boy had died after kidney and liver ailments.
After the video went viral, a show-cause notice was issued to the hospital’s superintendent, Dr. T Bharathi, and the Resident Medical Officer, Dr. Saraswathi, was suspended.
The evidence above confirms that an old video from 2022 is being falsely linked to the January 8, 2025, Tirupati stampede.
Conclusion: The video is not related to the recent 2025 Tirupati stampede. It dates back to April 2022 and shows a father transporting his deceased child on a motorcycle, who died of a kidney ailment. The situation occurred after a private ambulance service at Ruia Government Hospital in Tirupati refused to lower its fees.
(The fact-check article was originally published by Logically Facts and has been republished by Lighthouse Journalism as a part of Shakti Collective.)
