By Srijit Das
A collage featuring an image of a martyred Indian Army soldier and a video clip of a Border Security Force (BSF) jawan speaking to a civilian and discussing about the uncertainty of life at the border is circulating on social media with a false claim that the latter was killed in action.
BOOM found that the photograph and the video shows two different people and both the incidents are separate.
In the viral video, a BSF jawan can be seen smiling and saying, "..live and let (others) live. There is no guaranty in (our) life. If someone shoots today, (I) will die today itself... who knows. If (we) do good, the world will remember you... (saying) there was a person with moustache..(laughter)..".
The Hindi caption with the collage translates to, "Cheerful jawan posted on the border was martyred".
(Original Text in Hindi: बार्डर पर तैनात हंसमुख जवान शहीद हो गया)
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Also Read:No, Viral Photo Does Not Show Savarkar Meeting Jinnah
Fact Check
Photo Of Martyred Soldier Is From Rajasthan
BOOM cropped out the image present on the viral video and performed a reverse image search to know about the details of the photograph. The search led us to a Facebook post carrying the same image uploaded on September 30, 2019.
The Hindi caption with the photo identified the martyred soldier as Rajendra Singh from Jaisalmer, Rajasthan.
Click here to view the post.
Taking a cue, we did a Hindi keyword search for "Rajendra Singh Jaisalmer" on Facebook and found a video of the funeral that was streamed live on September 30, 2019.
Click here to view the post.
According to an ANI report published on September 29, 2019, Naik Rajendra Singh was killed in action on September 28 during an encounter with terrorists in Jammu and Kashmir's Ramban district.
We also reached out to Shaktiswarup Bhati, a person who knew Rajendra Singh and his family, through a Facebook page named "Amar Shahid Rajendra Singh Bhati Shri Mohangarh Jaisalmer". Bhati confirmed to BOOM that the photo shows martyred soldier Rajendra Singh.
Video Of BSF Jawan From Gede Border, Bengal
BOOM then performed a keyword search for "Jio Aur jeene do" on Facebook to know about the video and found a Facebook post in Bengali stating that the video is from Gede Border in Bengal.
Taking a cue, we ran a keyword search for "Gede border" on YouTube and found a YouTube video uploaded on a channel named Prosun Vlogs on Aust 16, 2022. We further noticed the same jawan can be spotted in the video.
We reached out to Prosun through Facebook who confirmed to us that the viral video was recorded on August 15, 2022. He also said another YouTuber named Prosenjit Sarkar uploaded the same video on his Facebook profile.
The Facebook post can be seen below.
We then contacted Prasenjit to know details about the BSF jawan. Speaking to BOOM, Prasenjit said, "He is Virendra Singh. I recorded the video on August 15 this year. I spoke to him after this video went viral. The news is fake. He is doing fine."
