Old, unrelated photos are being shared with the false claim that the houses of Colonel Sofiya Qureshi, Wing Commander Vyomika Singh were vandalised by RSS and Hindutva groups
A couple of photographs showing a ransacked home are being widely circulated on social media platforms, claiming that Col Sofiya Qureshi’s home in Belagavi was attacked by RSS members (here, here) and that Wing Commander Vyomika Singh’s home was vandalised by members of the Bajrang Dal (here, here). Through this article, let’s fact-check the claims made in the post.
Claim: The photos show the homes of Col Sofiya Qureshi and Wing Commander Vyomika Singh vandalised by RSS and Hindutva groups.
Fact: The viral claim is false. The homes of Col Sofiya Qureshi and Wing Commander Vyomika Singh have not been vandalised by RSS, Hindutva groups, or anyone else. Karnataka’s Belagavi police dismissed the claim as fake news, and confirmed that Col Qureshi’s home in Belagavi is safe. They also stated the posts originated from users abroad, and that security has been provided to her family. One viral photo actually dates back to April 2024 and shows a vandalised polling booth during the 2024 Lok Sabha elections in Chamarajanagar district, Karnataka. Another photo depicts an incident of vandalism that occurred in Newark, UK, in 2017. Hence the claim made in the post is FALSE.
To verify the accuracy of the viral claims, we conducted a relevant keyword search but found no reports indicating that the homes of Colonel Sofiya Qureshi and Wing Commander Vyomika Singh were vandalised by RSS, Hindutva groups, or anyone else. However, we came across several news reports stating that Belagavi police had denied the viral claims regarding an RSS attack on Colonel Qureshi’s home (here, here, here, here, and here).
According to these reports, Belagavi Superintendent of Police (SP) Dr Bhimashankar Guled categorically denied the incident, confirming that the claims are entirely fabricated and constitute fake news. The SP stated that the post originated from a user named Anees Uddin, whose X profile identifies him as a citizen of Colombia. The misleading content was flagged by the social media monitoring team and brought to the authorities’ attention. Addressing the claim at a press conference, Dr Guled said, “I personally commented on the post and asked the user to delete it immediately. After seeing the comment, he promptly deleted the post. Our team then contacted the headquarters of X and confirmed that the user was indeed a foreign national.” He further stated that the police have provided security to Col Sofiya Qureshi’s family and that an investigation is currently underway.
A Google reverse image search of the viral photo led us to a news report published by ‘The New Indian Express’ in April 2024, which featured the same image. According to the report, villagers from Indiganatha Village in the Male Mahadeshwara Wildlife Sanctuary set fire to electronic voting machines (EVMs) in a polling booth during the 2024 Lok Sabha elections on 26 April 2024, vandalised the booth, and attacked election officials for allegedly “forcing” them to vote. Multiple other reports (here, here, and here) featuring the same photo stated that the agitators had decided to boycott the polling in protest against the lack of basic amenities such as drinking water, roads, and electricity in their village.
Upon conducting a reverse image search of the other photo, which is being shared with the claim that Wing Commander Vyomika Singh’s home was attacked, we found that the photo depicts an old vandalism incident that took place in Newark, UK, in 2017 (archived here).
Colonel Sofiya Qureshi, a senior officer in the Indian Army’s Corps of Signals, and Wing Commander Vyomika Singh, a distinguished officer in the Indian Air Force (IAF), rose to national prominence during Operation Sindoor. Both women officers, along with Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri, held media briefings on India’s military response, ‘Operation Sindoor’, to the Pahalgam terror attack (here, here, and here).
To sum up, old and unrelated photos are being shared with the false claim that the houses of Colonel Sofiya Qureshi, Wing Commander Vyomika Singh were vandalised by RSS and Hindutva groups.