CRPF Assistant Commandant Poonam Gupta’s wedding at Rashtrapati Bhavan was not the first; several weddings have been held there previously
The Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) Assistant Commandant Poonam Gupta, who serves as the President’s PSO (Personal Security Officer) in the Rashtrapati Bhavan security department, got married at Rashtrapati Bhavan on 12 February 2025. In this context, several social media (here, here, here, here, and here) posts claim that her wedding was the first-ever marriage ceremony held at Rashtrapati Bhavan. Additionally, leading national media outlets such as CNBC-TV18, India Today, The Mint, Deccan Herald, PTI, and Economic Times have also published reports stating that Poonam Gupta’s wedding was the first to take place at Rashtrapati Bhavan. Let’s verify the claim made in the post through this article.
Claim: The wedding of CRPF Assistant Commandant Poonam Gupta on 12 February 2025 was the first-ever wedding held at Rashtrapati Bhavan.
Fact: The wedding of CRPF (Central Reserve Police Force) Assistant Commandant Poonam Gupta on 12 February 2025 was not the first to be held at Rashtrapati Bhavan. Several weddings had taken place there earlier. The Press Information Bureau (PIB) of the Government of India, through its official fact-checking handle on X (formerly Twitter), dismissed the claim as fake on the same day. Additionally, photos from the official Digital Photo Library of Rashtrapati Bhavan further confirm that multiple weddings have been held there in the past. Hence, the claim made in the post is FALSE.
To verify the claim that CRPF (Central Reserve Police Force) Assistant Commandant Poonam Gupta’s wedding on 12 February 2025 was the first-ever at Rashtrapati Bhavan, we searched and found an X post (archived) by the Press Information Bureau (PIB) fact-check handle of the Government of India on the same day. In the post, PIB stated that several media outlets had incorrectly reported that Rashtrapati Bhavan was hosting a wedding for the first time and clarified that this claim was false.
We then reviewed the official digital photo library website of Rashtrapati Bhavan and found photo albums documenting several weddings and receptions held at the venue (here, here, and here) (archived here, here, and here). These events were attended by the families of the President and Rashtrapati Bhavan staff, with former Presidents Ram Nath Kovind and Pranab Mukherjee present at some of them. This evidence confirms that weddings have taken place at Rashtrapati Bhavan well before the wedding of CRPF (Central Reserve Police Force) Assistant Commandant Poonam Gupta.
Poonam Gupta, who married at Rashtrapati Bhavan on 12 February 2025, led the women’s CRPF (Central Reserve Police Force) contingent in the 74th Republic Day parade in 2023. Her husband, Awanish Kumar, is currently serving as a CRPF officer in Jammu and Kashmir (here).
To sum up, CRPF Assistant Commandant Poonam Gupta’s wedding at Rashtrapati Bhavan is not the first; several weddings have been held there previously.