A video of a priest performing rituals on a high mountain peak, who suddenly loses his balance and falls into a deep ravine, is being shared on social media (here, here, and here) with the claim that it shows a 49-year-old priest in Andhra Pradesh who claimed to possess divine powers and could fly but died after jumping from a mountain in front of thousands of people. The same video was also reported by Republic TV (archived) with the same claim. Let’s verify the claim made in the post in this article.
The archived post can be found here.
Claim: The video shows a priest in Andhra Pradesh who claimed to possess divine powers and could fly, but died after jumping from a mountain.
Fact: The video does not show a priest in Andhra Pradesh who claimed to possess divine powers or to be able to fly. It shows the accidental death of Appa Papayya, a priest who slipped and fell while performing a customary ritual at Gampa Mallaiah Swamy Hill in Anantapur district in August 2021. Media reports, the police statement, and the FIR all describe the incident as an accidental fall and make no mention of Papayya claiming to possess divine powers or attempting to fly. Hence, the claim made in the post is Misleading.
A reverse image search of keyframes from the viral video led us to multiple media reports (here, here, and here) published in August 2021 featuring the same visuals. According to these reports, the incident occurred at Gampa Mallaiah Swamy Hill in Singanamala village, Anantapur district, Andhra Pradesh, where 49-year-old priest Appa Papayya was performing a special ritual during the Shravan month. Holding a bell in one hand and an aarti plate in the other, he was standing on top of a narrow, oil-soaked hill and performing a traditional dance to appease the deity when he appeared to lose his footing. A close examination of the video also shows that his leg slips, causing him to lose his balance before he falls into the deep ravine, resulting in his death. Locals said Papayya performed the same ritual four times every year during Shravan and that his grandfather had also died at the same location while performing a similar ritual several years earlier. The reports describe the incident as a tragic accident and make no mention of Papayya claiming to possess divine powers or being able to fly.
An ANI report published on 21 August 2021 included a statement from the then Sub-Inspector of Singanamala, Vamsikrishna. According to the police officer, the incident occurred at around 9 a.m. when the priest slipped while returning from the hill. Police registered a case of accidental death under Section 174 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC). The police statement describes the incident as an accidental fall and makes no mention of Papayya claiming to possess divine powers or being able to fly.
We also accessed the FIR copy related to the incident, which corroborates the media reports and police statement. The FIR states that Papayya had left home at around 5 a.m. with his younger son and sister to perform customary Shravan rituals at the temple. After completing the prayers, he accidentally slipped on a rock while descending the approximately 300-foot hill to enter a cave for another ritual. The case was registered based on a complaint filed by his wife, Appa Varalu. Like the media reports and the police statement, the FIR makes no mention of Papayya claiming to possess divine powers or being able to fly.
To sum up, an old video of an Andhra Pradesh priest’s accidental death after falling from a hill is falsely shared as him dying after claiming he could fly.
This article was republished from Factly with permission. Read the original article here.