By: Rahul Adhikari
September 1 2022
False: Indian National Security Advisor Ajit Doval was recently spotted with his wife Aruni Doval at the airport.
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Fact-Check
The Verdict False
The woman in the viral image is Former Foreign Secretary Sujatha Singh and not Ajit Doval's wife, Aruni Doval.
Claim ID 1f36d62d
Context:
A post is doing rounds on social media claiming that National Security Advisor (NSA) Ajit Doval was seen with his wife Aruni Doval at the airport. In the viral picture, Ajit Doval is walking with a woman. The woman is wearing a saree, and both have luggage with them. One of the Twitter posts read, "Millions of people like Saif Ali Khan and Kareena Khan couple photos. Let's see who likes the nationalist Ajit Doval and Anu Doval couple? Vande Mataram."
In fact:
A reverse image search led us to a The Indian Express article, published on September 9, 2014, which identified the woman in the photo as Foreign Secretary Sujatha Singh. The same viral photo has been used as a representative image in the article, and the Associated Press has been given credit. The image was taken when Doval arrived in Beijing in September 2018 to finalise plans for Chinese President Xi Jinping's visit to India. During this visit, Singh accompanied Doval.
Further, we found a photo in the Associated Press Images gallery where Singh is seen greeting the Former External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj with flowers on her first day at the office. The photo dates back to May 28, 2014.
A video was uploaded on the YouTube channel of DD News on August 1, 2013, with the caption read, "Sujatha Singh becomes new Foreign Secretary." Therefore it confirms that the woman in the image in question is Sujatha Singh, not Doval's wife.
On November 2, 2018, Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) official Facebook page posted a photo of Aruni Doval - wife of NSA Ajit Doval. In the photo, she is seen cutting a ribbon. The caption of the post read, "Smt. Aruni Doval wife of Shri Ajit Doval, NSA inaugurated 3 day CRPF Annual Welfare Exhibition, today at SDG Ground, Old JNU Campus, New Delhi." We compared Aruni Doval and the woman's photo in the viral post and came to the conclusion that they are not the same person.
The verdict:
An old image of Doval with Singh was falsely shared. Therefore, we have marked this claim false.