Social media is abuzz (here, here, and here) with a story of an Indian Navy officer named Abhishek Chakraborty, who allegedly participated in a 2016 mission named ‘Operation Black Cobra,’ a secret mission, whose objective was to destroy underwater sensors inside Pakistan’s Gwadar port. The viral social media posts claim that he lost his life after successfully completing the mission due to a lack of Oxygen and became a martyr. The story further elaborates that this mission was declassified in 2025, and he was posthumously awarded the Vir Chakra during the 2025 Navy Day. A few social media posts with this story are accompanied by a photo (here and here), purportedly of Mr Abhishek Chakraborty. We will fact-check this claim through this article.
Claim: A MARCOS (Marine Commando Force, Navy Special Forces) commando named Abhishek Chakraborty led a secret RAW (Research and Analysis Wing) mission called “Operation Black Cobra” in 2016 at Pakistan’s Gwadar port, died after completing it, and was publicly awarded (posthumously) the Vir Chakra in 2025 when the mission was declassified
Fact: No credible evidence supports the existence of a Navy officer named Abhishek Chakraborty, the alleged “Operation Black Cobra” mission, or any posthumous Vir Chakra awarded to him, and none of these appear in the official 2025 gallantry awards list. Hence, the claim made in the post is False.
The post claims that a Navy special forces officer named Abhishek Chakraborty died during a February 2016 special operation named “Operation Black Cobra.” The objective of this mission was apparently to ‘To destroy the underwater sensors and minefield of the China-Pakistan joint naval base, 8 km inside Pakistan’s Gwadar port, by sneaking in from a submarine.’ He was apparently awarded the Vir Chakra posthumously. His mother received this award from the Prime Minister this year (2025 ) on Navy Day.
To verify this, we first conducted an internet search to determine whether Vir Chakra was awarded to a Navy special forces officer named Abhishek Chakraborty during this year’s Navy Day celebrations, as claimed in the viral post. However, we did not find any credible news reports to validate this claim.
Generally, gallantry awards are announced twice a year, once during Republic Day and once during Independence Day, and are awarded by the President of India during a ceremony. We did not find the name of Abhishek Chakraborty in the 2025 Gallantry Awards list (here, here, and here). Even in the awards ceremony, his name was not mentioned anywhere (here and here).
Furthermore, we conducted an internet search to determine if there are any 2025 news reports on the declassification of the so-called “Operation Black Cobra.” We did not find any valid news reports on the same. We also searched with Bengali keywords to find reports on Abhishek Chakraborty’s funeral procession. The viral story claims that ‘When his body arrived in Kolkata, from Dakshineswar Temple to Kalighat, millions of people took to the streets.’
However, we did not find any news reports on such an event. The viral posts named reports by The Hindu, Anandabazar Patrika, and an official release by the Indian Navy as their sources. But we did not find any of these online. Hive, an AI-content detection tool, identified the photo in the viral post as ‘AI-generated.’ In a few of the viral posts, we found an extended version of this photo, which contained Bengali language text and is attributed to a Bengali media outlet named ‘Bangla Tweet.’ We found a Bengali version of this story on their page. They posted it on 5 December 2025.
During this search, we discovered that an Indian Army officer, Major Abhishek Chakrabarty, received the Shaurya Chakra award. But it was in 2011 (here and here).
For more information on this viral story and the Navy personnel named Abhishek Chakraborthy, we contacted PIB Fact Check, the Defence Ministry, and the Navy. This article will be updated with relevant details once we receive their response.
To sum up, there is no official evidence to validate the viral story about MARCOS officer Abhishek Chakraborty and ‘Operation Black Cobra.’
