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| - The late Indian Army Captain Anshuman Singh was recently awarded the Kirti Chakra posthumously. His wife, Smriti Singh, accompanied by her mother-in-law, received the award from President Droupadi Murmu on July 5.
Following the award, the late Captain’s parents spoke to the media. They alleged that Smriti had taken the gallantry medal and other memories of their son with her to her hometown. Under the current policy of the armed forces, if a soldier is married, then their spouse is listed as the ‘Next Of Kin’ (NOK), and not their parents. If they are martyred, the ex-gratia amount is given to the NOK, that is the spouse. Anshuman Singh’s father also asked for a review of this policy.
Now, a 17-second video of a woman is viral on social media which, users claim, shows Smriti Singh. In the video, the woman is seen posing in a saree with a Hindi song playing in the background. Social media users have criticised her for posting such a video against the backdrop of allegations levelled against her by her in-laws.
Facebook user Rakesh Yanduvanshi shared the clip on July 14 with a caption in Hindi that can be translated as: “A mother sacrificed her son for the country, and the wife of the martyred soldier is spreading beauty on Instagram with one crore rupees and the Shaurya Chakra. 😭🇮🇳🙏🏼 Some people were shedding tears for her”.
एक मां ने अपना बेटा देश के लिए शहीद कर दिया और शहीद
हुए जवान की पत्नी एक करोड़ और शौर्य चक्र लेकर इंस्टाग्राम पर खूबसूरती बिखरे रही है 😭🇮🇳🙏🏼 कुछ लोग इसके लिए आसू बहा रहे थे 🤔🤔✊💦
Posted by Rakesh Yanduvanshi on Sunday 14 July 2024
Several other users on Facebook shared the same clip with the same caption.
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Fact Check
We did a side-by-side comparison of a screengrab from the viral video and the image of Smriti Singh from the award ceremony, that was widely circulated. In it, one can clearly see that the two images do not show the same woman.
Further, we broke down the video into several keyframes and ran a reverse image search on some of them which led us to an Instagram post which featured the same video. The post was made by an Instagram page called @label_ilma, a clothing brand.
The caption of the post said, “@reshsebu setting the perfect summer vibes in our Meadow Kota Doriya Saree”.
View this post on Instagram
We checked the tagged Instagram account in the above post which belonged to a user named Reshma Sebastian. She had posted the same video on her Instagram page on April 24. We also found a statement shared by her clarifying that she is not Smriti Singh.
View this post on Instagram
Further, on July 17, Sebastian posted on her Instagram that she had filed a defamation case against those who had been “using (her) identity to create false information ans hate speeches.”
Several news outlets also reported that Instagram influencer Reshma Sebastian was mistakenly identified as Smriti Singh and faced online trolling as a result.
To sum up, it is clear that the woman in the viral video is not the widow of Captain Anshuman Singh, Smriti Singh. It features Instagram influencer Reshma Sebastian.
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