Were two diplomats from India's Embassy in Iran detained or arrested in connection with the investigation of the helicopter crash that killed the country's president, among other officials? No, that's not true: There is no evidence to support the claim made in a social media post and no credible sources confirmed such arrests. As of this writing, Iran's state media said that the crash on May 19, 2024, was caused by a "technical failure."
The story appeared in a post (archived here) on X where it was published by "PSYWAROPS" on May 20, 2024. It opened:
#BREAKINGNEWS: ππ°π¨ #ππ§ππ’ππ§ ππ’π©π₯π¨π¦πππ¬ ππ«π«ππ¬πππ π’π§ #ππ«ππ§ ππ¦π’π ππ«ππ¬π’πππ§π πππ’π¬π’'π¬ πππ₯π’ππ¨π©πππ« ππ«ππ¬π‘ ππ§π―ππ¬ππ’π πππ’π¨π§
Reportedly, two top Ind!an diplomats, Navendu Shekar and Ateeth Sajvan, linked to the recent crash involving President Ebrahim Raisi, have been detained in Iran.
Attempting to flee the country, the officials from the Ind!an Embassy in Tehran were apprehended at the departure gate of Tehran International Airport by Iranian intelligence.
#Iran #Iranian #India #Indian #PresidentRaisi #Helicrash
This is what it looked like at the time of writing:
(Source: X screenshot taken on Mon May 20 14:44:57 2024 UTC)
The post cited no sources and offered no visual proof that the event in question actually took place.
Utilizing keywords seen here (archived here), Lead Stories searched Google News but found no credible reports about the purported "news."
As of this writing, the Embassy of India in Tehran issued no press releases (archived here) corroborating the claim. A search for the names of the allegedly arrested diplomats across its website produced no results for persons named "Navendu Shekar" (archived here) and "Ateeth Sajvan" (archived here).
The official Embassy of India in Tehran made no mention (archived here) of the purported arrests.
President Ebrahim Raisi and Foreign Minister Hossein Amir Abdollahian were among Iran's officials killed in a helicopter crash near the city of Jolfa on May 19, 2024, while returning from Iran's border with Azerbaijan. The next day, Iran's state media reported that the crash was caused by a "technical failure" (archived here).
Lead Stories contacted the Indian Embassy in Tehran for additional comments. If we get a response, this story will be updated as appropriate.
Other Lead Stories fact checks mentioning Iran can be found here.
