Daijiworld Media Network - Bengaluru (SHP)
Bengaluru, Jun 28: A piece of news has been doing the rounds on social media lately where a woman who hails from a poverty-stricken family has allegedly secured the third place in the UPSC examination. The woman in context here is Revathi from Karnataka, whose parents are daily wage earners.
The story of Revathi securing the third place in the exam was shared by several people, one among whom was state joint secretary of BJP Bengal, Amitava Chakravorty. He tweeted on the matter on Saturday, June 27 with a celebratory picture of Revathi with her parents. The picture was also shared by the district vice-president of BJP J&K, Arlan Malik.
From the social media site Facebook to Instagram, claims of Revathi securing a rank in the UPSC examination has attained much virality.
However, it was also observed that the very story has been circulating on social media channels since 2017. As a matter of fact, the story was also uploaded on the Facebook page 'Indian Administrative Service - IAS', where it has received 94,000 shares.
To check the credibility of the news, Alt News conducted a fact check where a surprising discovery was made. After going through the list of candidates who cleared the exam in the 2016 and whose results were announced in 2017, it was found that there was no candidate by the name of Revathi who supposedly came third. The person who actually did come third was Gopalkrishna Ronanki.
On further research, it was found that an article on Revathi was carried by a Telugu website. As per the article, Venkata Revathi hailed from a poor family in Avanigadda in Andhra Pradesh’s Krishna district. After completing her college, she appeared for AP police examination and was selected for the post of a sub-inspector (SI). The article carries another photograph of Revathi.
Alt News also contacted the Avanigadda police station and was redirected to SI Revathi who informed that she is not an IAS officer. Her full name is Mathi Venkata Revathi (28) and she hails from Modumudi village. She is currently posted at Disha police station in Rajahmundry City, East Godavari district.
In the end, it was found that the reality behind the story was that Revathi never wrote the IAS exam and rather was selected for the post of a sub-inspector in AP police examination in 2017.