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| - Fact Check: This emotional note by an 'Army veteran' is not linked to the Bipin Rawat chopper crash
India Today Anti Fake News War Room (AFWA) found that the note in question has been circulating on the Internet for almost a decade and is not related to CDS Rawat's chopper crash.
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India Today Fact Check
This message has been in circulation on the internet at least since 2013 and is not related to the Coonoor chopper crash.
It’s been almost a week since the tragic chopper crash that killed CDS Bipin Rawat and 12 others. Condolences continue to pour in on social media, and so do emotional stories on the lives of our soldiers.
One such moving tale, purportedly by a Wing Commander Venki Iyer, is circulating on social media. The long note speaks about Iyer’s experience in meeting an Army veteran who recently lost his son Vikram Singh in an IAF chopper crash.
Several social media users have assumed Vikram Singh to be one of those on board with CDS Rawat in the ill-fated chopper. The full message can be seen below.
India Today Anti Fake News War Room (AFWA) has found that the note in question has been circulating on the Internet for almost a decade and is not related to CDS Rawat’s chopper crash.
AFWA PROBE
CDS Rawat, his wife Madhulika and defence adviser Brigadier LS Lidder were among the 13 people killed in the helicopter crash on December 8 near Coonoor in Tamil Nadu.
However, there was no one by the name Vikram Singh on board with the CDS.
Lt Col Harjinder Singh, Lance Naik B Sai Teja, Lance Naik Vivek Kumar, Lance Naik Jitender Kumar, Naik Gursevak Singh, Havildar Satpal Rai, Wg Cdr PS Chauhan, Sqn Ldr Kuldeep, JWO RP Das and JWO A Pradeep were the other fatalities in the incident. Group Captain Varun Singh, the lone survivor of the crash, is undergoing treatment at the Command Hospital in Bengaluru.
Moreover, when we searched for the source of the viral message, we found that the same note has been in circulation for almost a decade. The same note was posted by a Facebook user in July 2013.
Multiple other blogs have published the same message over the years.
According to the message in circulation, Army veteran Lachhman Singh Rathore lost his two sons (Captain Ghanshyam Singh of Gurkha Rifles and Major Bir Singh) in the 1962 and 1965 wars. Vikram Singh, who died in a chopper crash, was his third son.
However, we could not find any credible site carrying the emotional story of this father who lost three of his sons in the line of duty.
We also checked the website “Honourpoint” that contains the list of Indian soldiers who died in the line of duty.
However, we could not find the names of Captain Ghanshyam Singh or Major Bir Singh among the list of soldiers who died in the 1962 Indo-China war or in the 1965 Indo-Pakistan war.
We checked the Indian government’s gazette list of soldiers declared killed in action against Pakistan in August-September 1965. Here too, we could not find the name “Bir Singh” among officers with ‘Major’ rank.
Also, according to the viral post, the note has been written by Wing Commander Venki Iyer. While it has not given his complete name, we found the name of one Wing Commander Kolar Visweshwara Venkatesh Iyer on a few websites.
However, the officer retired from service in 1999. We have reached out to the Indian Air Force to know whether the note was written by Cdr Iyer. The copy will be updated once we receive a response from Cdr Iyer or his family.
We cannot ascertain whether the story in the message is completely fictitious or true. But evidently, it is old and not related to the recent chopper crash in Coonoor.
Please share it on our at 73 7000 7000
You can also send us an email at factcheck@intoday.com
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