Photo taken during an ad shoot is falsely shared as an IAS topper from Kolkata carrying her father in a rickshaw - FACTLY
Sai Krishna Muthyanolla
May 9, 2019
Many Facebook users are sharing a post with the photo of a girl pulling a hand rickshaw with an old man sitting in the rickshaw. In the post, they went on to claim that the girl is an IAS topper from Kolkata and the old man is her father. Let’s try to analyze the claims made in the post.
The girl pulling the hand rickshaw is an IAS topper from Kolkata.
Fact: The girl in the photo is Sharaman Poddar, a traveller. This photo was clicked during an ad shoot for ‘Wildcraft’ bags. Hence, the claim is FALSE.
The photo was first tweeted in 2018 by a Tamil Nadu Congress leader, Dr. J Aslam Basha with a narration “IAS topper, introducing her father to people. Grand salute to her and her father.” This photo is now again doing rounds with the same description.
When this photo is run through Google Reverse Image search, it was found to be clicked during an ad shoot for ‘Wildcraft’ bags in April 2018.
The girl pulling the hand rickshaw is Sharaman Poddar, a traveller. The same photo can be seen on her Instagram account mishti.and.meat. In the description of the photo, she mentioned that during an ad shoot in Kolkata, she asked an old rickshaw puller to sit in it while she pulled the rickshaw in the streets of Shobha bazaar in Kolkata. So, the old man in the photo is not her father.
To sum it up, the girl in the photo isn’t an IAS topper from Kolkata and the old man in the rickshaw isn’t her father.