That’s Sudha Murty But She Isn’t Selling Vegetables Near a Temple

She told The Quint that she goes to Raghavendra Swamy temple three days a year to help with the kitchen work.

An image of Sudha Murty is circulating on social media with a misleading claim that she sells vegetables in front of a temple.

(Photo: Altered by The Quint)

A viral image of Sudha Murty, author, philanthropist and chairperson of Infosys Foundation, is being shared with the claim that she sells vegetables in front of a temple once every year.

While the image is of Sudha Murty, the claim along with it is false. She told The Quint that she goes to Raghavendra Swamy temple in Bengaluru’s Jayanagar three days a year to help with the kitchen work and not to sell vegetables.

CLAIM

IRS officer Surbhi shared the image on Twitter with the claim: “Every year Sudha Murthy, wife of founder Infosys, spends one year selling vegetables to get rid of Ego. How one doesn’t let money change their values.”

She later said one day in a year.

The tweet had garnered over 4,000 retweets and 24,000 likes at the time of publishing the article.

She further shared another tweet, attributing the information to Bangalore Mirror, that mentioned that she does selfless service in Raghavendra Swamy temple three days in a year.

You can view the archived version here.(Source: Twitter/ Screenshot)

Twitter user Raghav Chaudhary also shared the image that received huge engagement with the claim that Murthy sells vegetables in “front of Venkateshwar Temple for 1 day every year to get rid of any kind of ego.”

You can view the archived version here.(Source: Twitter/ Screenshot)

Several social media users shared the image with the same claim on Twitter and Facebook.

You can view the archived version here.(Source: Twitter/ Screenshot)

You can view the archived version here.(Source: Facebook/ Screenshot)

WHAT WE FOUND OUT

While the woman in the image is indeed Sudha Murty, she does not visit the temple to sell vegetables.

Speaking to The Quint, she said: “That’s not true. The truth is that since childhood, we are the devotees of Raghavendra Swamy of Mantralaya and from childhood, my grandmother used to help in the kitchen three days in a year. She used to do and I used to do along with her without understanding.”

She further says that she goes to the temple to clean and sort vegetables and help with the kitchen work.

“But later, I realised its importance and even today, I do three days work in the kitchen like cleaning the vegetables, sorting the vegetables in Raghavendra Swamy temple in Bengaluru’s Jayanagar.”

Sudha Murty, chairperson of Infosys Foundation

We also reverse searched the image on Google and found that several regional publications had mentioned that the image shows Sudha Murty.

Google reverse image search showed that several regional outlets had carried the image of Sudha Murty.(Source: Google/ Screenshot)

We also came across an article published by Bangalore Mirror in 2013 when the organisation had interviewed Sudha Murty. The article mentioned that she visits Raghavendra Swamy temple in Bengaluru’s Jayanagar three days in a year.

“She cleans the kitchen and the adjoining rooms; washes the dirty utensils, dusts the shelves, chops vegetables, takes inventory of stock, sweeps the yard and empties the trash cans,” the article added.

Bangalore Mirror had carried an article in 2013 wherein the Murty had mentioned that she visits the temple three days in a year.(Source: Bangalore Mirror/ Screenshot)

Evidently, an image of Sudha Murty is circulating on social media with a false claim that she sells vegetables in front of a temple.

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