On Wednesday, the Times of India tendered an apology for wrongly using the image of a happy and alive couple, Amit and Shilpi Agarwal, for a story about a man who strangled his estranged wife and killed his mother-in-law before shooting himself. The national newspaper informed that the couple shared the same names as that of those involved in the incident.
The Times of India further said that the photograph which was sent by a source was carried by other newspapers as well. “The moment we discovered our mistake, we removed the picture from our website with sincere apologies right at the top of the news report; we also took it off our e-paper. And we apologised on Facebook and Twitter,” the national daily reiterated.
Apologising for the editorial oversight and wishing the couple a joyous life ahead, the Times of India claimed that it takes precautions before publishing anything, including editorial pictures that accompany a story. The newspaper highlighted that the gaffe has made it revisit their protocols to make the system ‘airtight’ and ensure re-verification of photographs that are shared by the official sources.
Amit and Shilpi Agarwal – The Namesake
Food vloggers Shilpi and Amit Agarwal who live in California took to Facebook earlier on Tuesday to express their angst after they discovered their happy pictures were passed off as that of a couple who had died after the husband went on a killing spree before shooting himself. In a video uploaded on Facebook, the vlogger Amit Agarwal accused the Times of India for taking their picture off their Facebook page and using it for the contentious story. After the video was uploaded, Times of India has updated its web story and used a representational image and added the disclaimer that they had used a wrong image earlier.