India
Here is the truth behind the photo of an army officer posing next to defence minister Nirmala Sitharaman with the claim that the army officer is the defence minister's daughter
Mangaluru: A photo of Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman with a woman army officer went viral as a page shared this image with the caption, 'the defence minister with her daughter '.
Team Modi supporter Jalalur on December 27, 2018 shared this image first.
The image was shared more than 350 times in various pages and on Twitter with the same caption.
"भारतीय इतिहास में ऐसा पहली बार 4 साल से लगातार हो रहा है, जब देश के प्रधानमंत्री, रक्षामंत्री सब दीपावली अपने परिवार के साथ नहीं, बल्कि देश के रक्षा के लिए तैनात जवानों के साथ मिलकर सरहद पर मना रहे हैं.!"🇮🇳🙏 pic.twitter.com/l55BOSgFTY
— Sunita Gupta 🇮🇳 (@Sunitagupta__)After a fact check by an online media group on the same revealed that the woman in the picture is not minister Nirmala Sitharaman's daughter. It is clear that the minister's daughter does not serve in the Indian Army.
Boom fact check team spoke to army spokesperson Col Rohan Anand, who clarified that the girl in photo next to defence minister was not her daughter, but the picture was taken during the minister's visit. He also said that the officer was appointed recently in the army.
Nirmala Sitharaman's daughter's name is Parakala Vangmayi. She has a PhD from London School of Economics, state reports.
The girl in the photo has been identified as Nikita Veeraiah. A Facebook post of Nikita serves as verification that she is part of the Indian Army.
More details about Nikita are not available currently, except that she hails from Mangaluru and studied at KS Hegde Medical Academy before graduating in 2010.
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