The streets of Kerala have been marred with potholes due to excessive rainfall during this year’s monsoon. The condition has become so bad that many people have been injured, and a few even lost their lives. The Kerala HC has deemed them as a man-made disaster and rapped the government for such conditions of roads throughout the state.
Against this backdrop, many social media posts have gone viral displaying the state of roads in Kerala. One such post showcasing a fallen truck in a pit in the middle of the road is doing the rounds on social media. Many social media users sarcastically claim that the truck comes bearing presents from Mahabali (Maveli) for the upcoming festival of Onam.
A Facebook user posted the viral image with a caption: മാവേലി കൊടുത്തുവിട്ട സാധനങ്ങളുമായി…ആദ്യ വണ്ടി കേരളത്തിൽ…എത്തി (English translation: With the things given by Maveli… First vehicle in Kerala… Arrived)
You can find the post here.
FACT CHECK
When NewsMobile fact-checked the viral image, it was found to be misleading.
Running a Google Keyword Search to check whether this incident happened in Kerala or not, we could not find any news related to this anywhere.
Conducting a Reverse Image Search to check the image authenticity, we found a tweet by Indian cricketer Virender Sehwag, dated July 26, 2016. He had posted the viral image with a caption: Truck ready to be launched for Space ..Dshhhhhh
Truck ready to be launched for Space ..Dshhhhhh pic.twitter.com/f3bWHVvNtv
— Virender Sehwag (@virendersehwag) July 26, 2016
Searching further, we found the same image posted on August 3, 2015, on a photo collection website Piximus, under the title: Brutal And Ridiculous Car Fails. And again on August 28, 2019, on the Chinese website Baidu, with the title: TOP 5 幸好是后轮进坑 (English translation: TOP 5 Fortunately, the rear wheel entered the pit.)
Although the exact location of the viral image could not be traced, it is evident from our search that the image is not recent and has been on the Internet since 2015.
Therefore, we can conclusively say that the viral post, claiming the picture to be a recent incident from Kerala, is misleading.
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