A photograph of actor Simran Kaur Mundi driving a rickshaw with an old man sitting in the passenger seat carrying a placard with the text "Follow Star Masons", is viral on the internet with captions falsely identifying her as an Assistant sub-inspector of police carrying her father, who worked as a rickshaw rider to support her daughter's education.
BOOM found that the same photo was uploaded on Mundi's Instagram account in 2016, to promote her venture Star Masons. Kaur herself took to social media to deny the claims made by the viral posts. "He is not my father and I am not ASI," she wrote.
The photo is being peddled with a Punjabi caption that translates to, "Father made his daughter ASI with the money earned by driving rickshaw, salute to this father's thinking..."
(Original Text in Punjabi: ਬਾਪੂ ਨੇ ਰਿਕਸ਼ਾ ਚਲਾ ਕੇ ਕਮਾਏ ਪੈਸੇ ਨਾਲ ਆਪਣੀ ਧੀ ਨੂੰ ASI ਬਣਾਇਆ, ਸਲੂਟ ਹੈ ਇਸ ਬਾਪੂ ਦੀ ਸੋਚ ਨੂੰ...)
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Fact Check
BOOM identified the woman in the picture as actor Simran Kaur Mundi and went through her official social media handles to look for the viral photo.
The search led us to the same picture uploaded on her Instagram account on January 15, 2016.
The actor captioned the photo as, " Aaja meri gaadi mein baith ja? and #FollowStarMasons #starmasons #badshah #bangalore @starmasons".
Click here to view the post.
We also found a tweet from her official Twitter account about the viral false claim. Simran took a screengrab of one of the viral posts and clarified that she is not an ASI as claimed.
The actor also mentioned that the old person on the rickshaw is not her father either.
Simran wrote, "114 comments of which majority r congratulations this is proof people these days blindly believe anything and everything they read on social media school!! And this is apparently a "news portal" Fact Check anyone? He is not my father and i am not ASI. Fake News".
Click here to view the post.
BOOM also reached out to actor Simran Kaur Mundi's office for further verification. They replied in an email saying, "This is a false claim. The original post is from 2016 (screenshot shared) it is still there on her profile."
"Simran shot this image in Amritsar while promoting her company Star Masons. Star Masons was doing a concert with badshah in bangalore in 2016 feb and this was all a part of its promotion", they added.