A collage (here, here, and here) of two photos allegedly showing an elderly man getting married to a much younger woman is being widely shared online with the claim that a person named Mohammad Shakeel from Deoria, Uttar Pradesh, married his own daughter-in-law just five days after his son’s death. We will fact-check this claim through this article.
Claim: The viral collage shows a man named Mohammad Shakeel from Deoria, Uttar Pradesh, who married his daughter-in-law five days after his son’s death.
Fact: The image is from a 2017 wedding of a businessman named Rajesh Kumar Himatsingka. It has nothing to do with anyone named Mohammad Shakeel. Hence, the claim made in the post is Misleading.
To verify the claim, we performed a reverse image search using the viral photo. The search led us to video reports (here, here, and here) from November 2017 that covered the wedding of the man and woman featured in the viral collage. Dainik Bhaskar reported that he is a 70-year-old businessman, Rajesh Kumar Himatsingka, Managing Director of Himatsingka Auto Enterprises Ltd., based in Assam.
These reports featured the left side image seen in the collage. We found the photo on the right side of the collage in an article published by Patrika.com on 12 August 2018, about Rajesh Kumar Himatsingka’s wedding. This is reportedly his second marriage. His wife from his earlier marriage passed away years ago. There was no mention in any of these news reports that the woman Rajesh married was his daughter-in-law. This makes it clear that the viral photo is old and does not feature the so-called Mohammad Shakeel from UP, who married his daughter-in-law as mentioned in the viral claim.
Additionally, we did not find any recent media reports or public record supporting the viral claim.
To sum up, a 2017 photo involving businessman Rajesh Himatsingka is now being shared with a false narrative that a man named Mohammad Shakeel from Uttar Pradesh, married his own daughter-in-law just five days after his son’s death
