As the nation welcomes Indian Air Force (IAF) pilot Abhinandan Varthaman who was captured by Pakistan on Wednesday, a video of a woman requesting the BJP not to politicise the sacrifice of martyrs has been doing the rounds on social media. It is being claimed that the woman in the viral video is Abhinandan’s wife.

India Today Anti Fake News War Room (AFWA) has found that the woman in the video is not the wife of IAF pilot Abhinandan, reports the indiatoday.in.

Indian Youth Congress’ online magazine ‘Yuva Desh’ has tweeted this one minute-eight seconds video with the claim in Hindi which says, ‘Wing Commander Abhinandan ji ki patni ka sandesh ki sainiko ke balidaan par BJP na kare rajniti (The message from Wing Commander Abhinandan ji’s wife states that the BJP should not politicise the sacrifice of soldiers.)’

Facebook user Dinesh Singta, who claims to be a National Students Union of India (NSUI) member, also posted the same video which has been shared more than 14,000 times at the last count. The post is being shared from other Facebook accounts as well.

Besides Sidhu, SP MLA Rajesh Yadav and Congress Seva Dal member Harvinder Singh tweeted the video with the same claim.

We first listened to the video carefully. The video starts with the woman saying: I am the wife of an army officer. At the 21st second of the video, she can be heard saying: Just imagine the kind of tension, the kind of pain the family of Abhinandan is going through right now. It is to be noted that the woman is making a reference to Abhinandan’s family, clearly indicating that she is not a member of his family.

News portal inkhabar.com has also published the photographs of Abhinandan with his wife. Comparing the photo of Abhinandan’s wife and the woman in the viral video, it is clear that both are different people.

The verified Twitter account of Bharatiya Janata Party has expressed the disappointment on the post by tweeting: Just when you think Rahul Gandhi’s Congress can’t stoop lower, they breach their own record. Faking a video by the name of braveheart Abhinandan’s wife for political propaganda is beyond even shameful.