A video that shows a Border Security Force (BSF) personnel talking about the uncertainty of life, where he says in Hindi "live and let live", is going viral on social media with the claim that he has passed away.
A screenshot from the video has been juxtaposed with a picture of a dead body to further the claim.
However, the claim is false. The video shows a BSF personnel, posted at the Gede border, in West Bengal. The video was uploaded on YouTube on 16 August 2022.
On the other hand, the image could be traced back to a Facebook post from 2019.
CLAIM
The collage of the personnel is being shared with the photo of a dead body along with a claim, "Sahidh ho gaye yar, Koti koti pranam."
[Translation: He is now martyred. Sending respect.]
Some of the claims are also identifying the army personnel as Rajendra Singh Bhati from the Indian Army.
An archived version of the post can be seen here.
(Source: Facebook/Screenshot)
WHAT WE FOUND OUT
First, we performed a reverse Google image search on the picture of the dead body and found a Facebook post from 30 September 2019.
The post is from 2019.
(Source: The Quint)
The caption of the post identified the person as Martyr Rajendra Singh Bhati from Jaisalmer. However, we have not been able to independently verify the name of the person.
WHAT ABOUT THE VIDEO?
Next, we ran a reverse search on some of the keyframes of the video on Google Images.
This led us to a Facebook post, uploaded on 19 August 2022, and it carried the same 27 seconds clip of the BSF personnel. The post had a YouTube video link in the comments, which carried the original clip.
The YouTube channel identified him as 'Virendra sir'. The viral part could be seen from the 6:55 timestamp.
The creator of the video has also clarified in the comment section that the information about Virendra's demise is "fake".
We also noticed boards and signs in the video which proved that it was shot around the Independence Day celebrations this year.
(Note: Swipe to see the screenshots)
Screenshots from the YouTube video.
(Source: Altered by The Quint)
We found the video on another YouTube channel and the BSF personnel was identified as Virendra Kumar Singh.
We have reached out to the creator of this video and will update the story once they respond.
We haven't been able to independently verify the identities of both the people seen in the viral posts. However, the fact that the two were made three years apart proves that the claim is false.
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