UPSC 5th Rank Holder Utkarsh Dwivedi An India Air Force Corporal? No, Viral Claim Is False

Authors

Vaibhav Bhujang

Vaibhav is a part of Newschecker’s English team, where he spots and debunks all kinds of misinformation, making the rounds on the internet. A Journalism graduate from St. Xavier's College, Mumbai, he holds an M.A degree in Philosophy and an M.Phil from Delhi University.

With the declaration of the UPSC results for the 2021 batch on 30th May, 2022, several social media users shared the image of a man dressed in the Indian Air Force uniform, identifying him as Utkarsh Dwivedi, who secured All India Ranking 5th in the UPSC exam. Newschecker found these claims to be untrue.

The image has been shared on Twitter by user @chibskycoo which has garnered 3,256 likes and 354 retweets. The image has been shared along with the caption ‘Corporal Utkarsh Dwivedi cracks the IAS exam & secures All India Rank 5th in the merit list. Heartiest congratulations!’.

Twitter user @chibskycoo has since issued an apology for sharing the image without checking it’s authenticity.

Newschecker found similar claims on Twitter with similar captions.

Also Read: Female Candidates Secured Top 4 Ranks In UPSC 2021? No Viral Claim Is Misleading

Fact Check /Verification

To  verify the authenticity of the claim, Newschecker began by conducting a reverse image search of the viral image on Google and found no conclusive results.

Upon conducting a key-word search on Google with the words “Utkarsh Dwivedi”, “UPSC exam” we found an article by India Today uploaded on 1st June, 2022 titled ‘Ayodhya boy cracks UPSC with Rank 5, dreams of a country with empathetic bureaucrats’. The image of Utkarsh Dwivedi featured in the article is visibly different from the image of the person seen in the viral social media post.

According to the article, after completing his B.Tech, Utkarsh was offered a job at SJVN (Satluj Jal Vidyut Nigam), a Public Sector Undertaking (PSU), which he declined. “I declined the opportunity to prioritise my goal. My focus was only on UPSC preparation. Hence, I did not take up any job,” the article quotes Utkarsh as saying.

Upon further investigation, Newschecker found an interview of Utkarsh Dwivedi uploaded on Youtube by a channel called ‘Chamomile Tea with Toppers’ uploaded on 1st June, 2022.

Around the 9 minute mark, answering a question about whether this was his first attempt at the UPSC exam, Utkarsh answers that this was his third attempt to crack the exam and that “I have never worked anywhere since my goal was always to clear the UPSC exam and hence he did not sit for college placements in the campus.”

Newschecker also reached out to Utkarsh Dwivedi through e-mail to which he responded that the tweet is completely fake and confirmed that he had not taken up any job before clearing the UPSC in his third attempt. He said “I studied from DPS Indore, did my BTech in Mechanical Engineering from VIT, Vellore in 2018. After graduation I attempted civil service in 2019’ which i missed by 23 marks. and then second attempt, which I missed by 11 marks. I finally cleared the civil service in third attempt with 5th rank.”

Conclusion

The viral image an individual in IAF uniform being shared as Utkarsh Dwivedi, the fifth rank holder in the UPSC 2021, is false. The image does not show Utkarsh Dwivedi and he was never a part of the Indian Air Force.

Result: Misleading/Partly False

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Authors

Vaibhav Bhujang

Vaibhav is a part of Newschecker’s English team, where he spots and debunks all kinds of misinformation, making the rounds on the internet. A Journalism graduate from St. Xavier's College, Mumbai, he holds an M.A degree in Philosophy and an M.Phil from Delhi University.