Fact Check: Fake Telugu Newspaper Clippings Target Naveen Yadav and Konda Sushmita Ahead of Jubilee Hills By-Election

The high-stakes by-election in Hyderabad’s Jubilee Hills constituency has drawn intense political attention as major parties, BRS, Congress, and BJP, battle to retain or gain influence in one of Telangana’s most prominent urban seats. The poll, necessitated by the death of sitting BRS MLA Maganti Gopinath, is set for November 11 with counting on November 14, and is widely viewed as a litmus test for the ruling party’s strength and the opposition’s resurgence ahead of future state contests. The BRS has fielded Maganti Sunitha, wife of late MLA, the Indian National Congress (INC) has chosen V Naveen Yadav; and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is backing Lankala Deepak Reddy.

Meanwhile several newspaper clippings are going viral with false information. Newspaper clippings resembling real publications imitating layouts, title fonts and key points, as well as design elements giving the feel of original newspapers are circulated. 

The viral newspaper clipping carries the headline, “Must give 10 crores. Naveen Yadav threatens three film producers for Jubilee Hills election funds.” It claims that Congress candidate Naveen Yadav threatened three film producers, demanding ₹10 crore each for the Jubilee Hills by-election expenses, which was later settled at ₹7 crore by Revanth Reddy. The report alleges that Revanth Reddy spoke to the producers over the phone from Delhi and suggested giving ₹7 crore. Following Revanth Reddy’s instructions, Naveen Yadav reportedly backed down and collected a total of ₹21 crore from the producers, according to the newspaper clipping.

The clipping is being shared on social media with the caption: “Rs. 10 crores must be given..! Naveen Yadav threatens three film producers over Jubilee Hills election expenses. Producers begged for more money.. Naveen Yadav agrees to give it to Sasemirah. Money received by CM Revanth Reddy, Panchayat, Rs. 7 crores, suggestion to give.”

The newspaper clipping bears the logo of the Telugu news outlet Velugu, along with the date of publication and a link to the e-paper.

Here's the screenshot of the claim

Another viral clipping claims that Konda Sushmita, daughter of Konda Surekha, called Chief Minister Revanth Reddy a broker. The caption of the post reads: “Revanth Reddy is not the CM… he is a broker: Konda Sushmita. He (Revanth Reddy) settled the dispute with Ponguleti and took Rs. 50 crores from us. My mother once said that I would lose my ministerial position, but I wouldn’t say that at all. Revanth Reddy makes settlements by creating differences among ministers” (translated from Telugu).

Here's the screenshot of the claim

A third viral newspaper clipping claims that Congress candidate Naveen Yadav made controversial remarks about MLA Maganti’s death in an interview with TV5 News. The caption of the post says: “As soon as Maganti died, I fired fireworks. Controversial comments by Congress candidate Naveen Yadav in TV5 interview. If Maganti were alive, I could not become an MLA, so I wished for him to die. I lit firecrackers with happiness when I heard the news that he had died.”

Here's the screenshot of the claim

Fact Check:

The viral claims are false. The newspaper clippings are fabricated

Claim 1:

To verify the claim, we conducted a keyword search and found no news reports supporting it. Any such statement made by a major party candidate would have made headlines.

On close examination of the viral clipping, we noticed the date October 27, 2025, at the bottom. However, there are no reports published on the Velugu news website stating that Naveen Yadav extorted money from film producers to fund his election campaign in Jubilee Hills.

We then compared the viral clipping with an original copy of the e-paper and found minor differences in design and layout. The original e-paper clipping mentions only Velugu and not Prabhat Velugu. Additionally, the URL link in the authentic template ends with a number that leads to an online article (e.g. https://epaper.v6velugu.com/c/78419838).

Here’s a comparison between the viral image and the clipping from the V6 Velugu e-paper published on October 27, 2025.

We also found a post from V6 Velugu stating that the circulating clipping is fake.

Hence, the Telugu newspaper clipping claiming that Naveen Yadav threatened producers for money is fabricated.

Claim 2:

The viral clipping carrying the V6 Velugu logo is dated October 25, 2025. We verified the Velugu e-paper of the same date and found no reports attributing any such statements to Konda Sushmita in the genuine edition.

Furthermore, we conducted a keyword search to check if Konda Sushmita had made any such remarks and found no credible reports or statements.

We also checked the link shown on the viral clipping, which leads to an error message stating, “404 Page Not Found. The page you requested was not found.”

 V6 Velugu has confirmed that the circulating clipping is fake.

Hence, the clipping claiming Konda Susmita called CM Revant Reddy a broker is false

Claim 3:

The newspaper clipping also carries the logo of the Telugu news outlet Velugu and is dated October 21, 2025. We conducted a keyword search and found no news reports on the official Velugu website mentioning that Congress candidate Naveen Yadav made controversial remarks about celebrating Maganti Gopinath’s death. We also checked the link shown in the viral newspaper clipping, which leads to an error message stating, “404 Page Not Found. The page you requested was not found.”

On further investigation, we found remarks made by Naveen Yadav about Maganti Gopinath’s death. According to a report by Zee News, Naveen Yadav said that the death of MLA Maganti Gopinath was a “divine decree.” He also stated, “Elections come once every five years. If it comes in two years, then we must understand it. Was development done then? Or was injustice done? The people know.”

We also reviewed a TV5 News YouTube video featuring an interview with Naveen Yadav, titled “Sambasiva Rao Interview With Jubilee Hills Congress MLA Candidate Naveen Yadav,” uploaded on October 21, 2025. We found no controversial remarks about the former MLA Maganti’s death in the video.

Full View

 V6 Velugu has also confirmed that the circulating clipping is fake.

Therefore, the viral clipping claiming that Naveen Yadav made controversial comments about MLA Maganti’s death in an interview with TV5 News is false.