Photo of Loco Pilot With an Umbrella Is Not From Kerala’s Vande Bharat Express

The visual dates back to 2017 and shows the loco pilot of a train running through Jharkhand.

A photo showing a loco pilot holding an umbrella while operating a train is being widely shared on social media.

What is the claim?: The photo is being shared to claim that it was taken in the newly inaugurated Vande Bharat Express in Kerala.

• The claim comes days after leakage was reported in one of the train's executive coaches during its maiden run between Kerala's Thiruvananthapuram and Kasaragod.

(Archives of more claims on social media can be seen here, here and here.)

Is it true?: No, the photo dates back to 2017 and shows a loco pilot in a train running in Jharkhand.

How did we find out?: Using Google Lens, we ran a reverse image search on the photo and cropped the image to isolate the loco pilot.

• The search led us to an article published by Indiatimes in August 2017, which carried a tweet by journalist Sucheta Dalal.

• Her tweet carried a video and was shared on 9 August 2017.

• In the video, a person was heard talking about how water had been dripping from the ceiling and causing major inconveniences for about a year, but no arrangements had been made to resolve the issue.

Where is the video from?: In one frame of Dalal's tweet, we saw that the train went past a board with the text 'Bermo' on it.

We looked up the name of this place on Google Maps and found that Bermo is a town in Jharkhand's Bokaro district.

• Taking a cue from here, we used relevant keywords to look for more details about the video.

• This led us to an article by Indian Express article published on 11 August 2017, which carried screenshots from the video.

• The article mentioned that the video was shot in a train in Jharkhand and carried a reply by the Ministry of Railways' Twitter account.

• The Ministry said that they had enquired about the video and that it showed a "dead (non working) engine hauled by another engine in the front," the tweet read.

Conclusion: An old visual of a loco pilot holding in umbrella inside a train running in Jharkhand is being falsely linked to the newly inaugurated Vande Bharat Express in Kerala after reports of leakage in its executive coach.

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