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| - Fact Check: PM Modi is not greeting Gautam Adani's wife in this viral picture
An image of Prime Minister Narendra Modi greeting a woman with folded hands is circulating on social media with the claim that she is industrialist Gautam Adani's wife Priti Adani. India Today Anti Fake News War Room (AFWA) has found the claim to be false.
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India Today Fact Check
The woman in the picture is Deepika Mondol, a social worker and wife of a retired Rashtrapati Bhavan photographer.
An image of Prime Minister Narendra Modi greeting a woman with folded hands is circulating on social media with the claim that she is industrialist Gautam Adani's wife Priti Adani.
The caption along with the picture says, "How he bows before Mrs Preeti Adani, Wife of Gautam Adani.."
India Today Anti Fake News War Room (AFWA) has found the claim to be false. The woman in the picture is Deepika Mondol, wife of a retired Rashtrapati Bhavan photographer. The picture was taken during an event at Rashtrapati Bhavan.
The archived versions of similar posts can be seen here, here and here.
AFWA probe
Using reverse image search, we found the same picture carried by several news reports in 2018.
According to reports by "Amar Ujala" and "Divya Marathi", the woman in the picture is Deepika Mondol, chief functional officer of a Delhi-based NGO named Divyajyoti Culture Organisation and Welfare Society.
The reports had also shared images of the same woman with other prominent personalities such as late former President Dr APJ Abdul Kalam, Amitabh Bachchan, Rajinikanth and Vidya Balan.
Credit: Amar Ujala
We checked the website of Divyajyoti Culture Organisation and Welfare Society and confirmed that the name of its chief functional officer is Deepika Mondol.
We also found a video interview by Deepika on YouTube. The video title in Hindi translates to, "Changing India - A woman before whom the Prime Minister of India had to bow his head".
"We were at an event and I greeted PM Modi. That time, he asked me what I do and I said I'm a social worker. Then he greeted me back saying 'namaste mata ji'. I felt so good at that moment," Deepika is heard saying in the interview.
When AFWA reached out to Deepika's family, her husband Samar Mondol confirmed to us that the woman in the viral image is his wife and it was clicked during an event at Rashtrapati Bhavan.
"I used to work as a photographer at Rashtrapati Bhavan. My wife has visited Rashtrapati Bhavan on several occasions. The picture in circulation was clicked during a Civil Investiture Ceremony at Rashtrapati Bhavan during the Presidency of Pranab Mukherjee. We had uploaded this image on Deepika's Facebook profile. But some people started misusing the image and we finally had to lock our social media accounts," said Samar.
Samar, who retired during the regime of current President Ram Nath Kovind, was the official photographer for eight former Indian Presidents.
Samar also shared with us an image of Deepika with Amitabh Bachchan that he had posted on his Facebook account.
Gautam Adani's wife Priti is the chairperson of Adani Foundation. She looks very different from Deepika.
(Photo of Priti Adani)
Hence, it is clear that the woman in the viral image with PM Modi is Deepika Mondol, a social worker and wife of a retired Rashtrapati Bhavan photographer.
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