Fact Check: Former IAF pilot admits India lost Rafale jets during Operation Sindoor? No, Harjeet Singh passed away in 2023
Sharing the image of former Vice Chief of Air Staff Air Marshal Harjeet Singh Arora, it is being claimed that he admitted to India losing Rafale jets during Operation Sindoor.
By Md Mahfooz Alam
Claim:Former IAF pilot Harjeet Singh Arora admitted that India lost Rafale jets during Operation Sindoor skirmishes with Pakistan.
Fact:The claim is false. No such admission has been made. Arora passed away on January 21, 2023, while undergoing treatment at Delhiās Army Research and Referral Hospital.
Hyderabad: Since Operation Sindoor on May 7 and the subsequent airstrikes between India and Pakistan, Pakistani social media handles have repeatedly claimed that India used Rafale jets in the operation. These accounts have also circulated claims that Pakistan shot down Rafale jets. Almost every other day, a new post appears, often featuring edited or AI-generated videos or fake statements falsely attributed to Indian officials.
An image of a pilot, Harjeet Singh, is being shared on social media, suggesting that he admitted that India lost Rafale jets during the aerial skirmish between India and Pakistan.
An X user shared the images of alleged crash sites of Rafale jets broadcast by a Pakistan news channel, along with the image of Harjeet Singh, and wrote, āEx-IAF Pilot, Harjeet Singh, says India lost jets to Pakistan, next generation Rafale couldn't help.ā
Fact Check
NewsMeter found that the claim is false, as former Vice Chief of Air Staff Air Marshal Harjeet Singh Arora passed away in 2023.
We conducted a keyword search for IAF pilot Harjeet Singh and found a report by ANI, published on January 21, 2023, titled āFormer Vice Chief of Air Staff Air Marshal Harjeet Singh Arora passes away.ā The report features the same image of Arora that is being circulated in the viral posts.
According to the report, Arora passed away on January 21, 2023, at the age of 61 while undergoing treatment at Delhiās Army Research and Referral Hospital. His last rites were performed at the Brar Square crematorium in Delhi Cantonment.
We also found the same image of Arora shared by NDTV and ANI on X on January 21, 2023, reporting that the former Vice Chief of Air Staff had passed away at the Army Research and Referral Hospital in Delhi, where he was undergoing treatment.
We conducted another keyword search to verify whether any other former IAF pilot named Harjeet Singh had admitted that India lost Rafale jets, but found no credible reports to support this claim.
Therefore, we conclude that the claim is being falsely attributed to Vice Chief of Air Staff Air Marshal Harjeet Singh Arora, who passed away in 2023.
