4 Indian diplomats killed or 4 Indian students drowned in Russia? Here’s the Truth
On social media platform X (formerly Twitter), News has recently surfaced alleging that at least four Indian diplomats have been killed by unknown men in Russia. News has been shared by various pak-based handles on X
A pak-based handle namely Ironclad posted an image on X and wrote: “#BREAKING: Massive News, At least 04 Indian diplomats have been killed by unknown men in Russia”.
The handle had shared plenty of misinformation in the past as well.
Moreover, other pak-based handles also shared this news.
Fact-Check
Initiating the investigation of this viral news, the DFRAC team searching some keywords on Google in this regard. Surprisingly, no such reports or news articles have come to light. Contrary to this news, we found that the news of four Indian students from Maharashtra studying at a university in Russia drowned in a river has catapulted the headlines in the main stream media.
Media outlets such as Hindustan Times, Livemint, Indian Express and The Moscow Times have reported this news.
According to these reports, four Indian medical students drowned in a river near St Petersburg in Russia while a fifth was saved and is presently receiving medical care, the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) said on Friday. They were studying at the Yaroslav-the-Wise Novgorod State University located in Veliky Novgorod.
Upon Investigation further, we discovered a tweet on the X handle of Indian Embassy in Russia. The tweet featured a press brief note issuing an advisory for Indian students in Russia and urging them to be extremely careful while going to water bodies.
Apparently, four Indian students drowned in Russia rather than four Indian diplomats were killed.
Conclusion
It is evident from DFRAC’s fact-check that the news alleging that four Indian diplomats were killed has been misleadingly shared on X. In reality, four Indian medical students drowned in a river in Russia.
Analysis: Misleading
