Lieutenant General Dhiraj Seth is set to be the next Chief of the Army Staffand will assume office on June 30. In the wake of this announcement, social media has been awash with disinformation about him.
In this article, we will debunk three such claims.
UNCLE OF FAKE BRIGADIER
On June 12, Aryan Verma, a 21-year-old civilian, was arrested in Uttar Pradesh’s Shahjahanpur for allegedly posing as a brigadier. Now, many on social media are claiming that he is Dhiraj Seth’s nephew. They further alleged that “the fake brigadier has stated that he passed some sensitive military secrets to individuals abroad.”
India Today Fact Check reached out to Aryan Verma’s father, Anil Verma. He told us that his family is not related to Dhiraj Seth at all. He added that the family was deeply upset by the incident. This proves that the claim that 21-year-old Aryan Verma is the nephew of Lt Gen Dhiraj Seth is false.
THE WIRE ARTICLE
Another claim being circulated online involves a screenshot of a report published by The Wire. According to the viral screenshot, Lt Gen (Retd) PR Shankar claimed that Dhiraj Seth’s rise to Army Chief involved “bribery” and “meddling”.
Sharing the screenshot, one X user wrote, “According to The Wire, Lt Gen PR Shankar has alleged that Gen Dhiraj Seth’s rise to Army Chief involved ‘bribery’ and ‘meddling’. The allegations are now fueling major debate online over transparency in top military appointments.”
First, we searched for such a report published by The Wire. We did not find anything similar.
Following further searches, we came across a PIB Fact Check post. According to it, “Pakistani propaganda accounts are circulating an edited screenshot purportedly from The Wire, falsely claiming irregularities in the appointment process of Lt Gen Dhiraj Seth and attributing remarks to Lt Gen PR Shankar.”
We also found a post by Lt Gen (Retd) PR Shankar, in which he wrote: “I have not published any article. Lt Gen Dhiraj Seth is an outstanding officer. I wish him the very best.”
We then reached out to The Wire’s Managing Editor, Jahnavi Sen, who confirmed to us that the news outlet had not published any such article.
Hence, it is clear that the viral screenshot is fake.
A DEEPFAKE
Related to this, a video has also been shared online, where PR Shankar can be seen questioning the selection of Dhiraj Seth as Chief of the Army Staff, making remarks about alleged lobbying, political backing, and influential family ties.
However, this video is a deepfake. We found a post by PR Shankarwhere he clarified this. He wrote that the video “impersonates him to defame the COAS designate of the Indian Army.” He also said that he had formally complained against the post and requested that the fake clip and similar content be taken down.
We further checked the viral clip using AI detection tools. Hiya Deepfake Voice Detector gave the video an authenticity score of 14/100. Hive Moderation concluded the speech in the video was 99.1 per cent AI-generated.
Hence, it is clear that the viral video of PR Shankar is a deepfake.
(Written by Rashmi Gupta)
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