Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann got married on Thursday, 7 July to Dr Gurpreet Kaur in a private ceremony at his house in Chandigarh.
Amid news of the wedding, an impostor account with the handle '@DrGurpreetKaur_' has surfaced on Twitter, claiming to be Kaur.
However, according to the web archives of the account, the handle was previously called '@SulochnaPandey' and '@IndiaUprise', before it was changed to Kaur's name.
THE CLAIM
A Twitter account with the username '@DrGurpreetKaur_' is responding to tweets about Bhagwant Mann's wedding while pretending to be Kaur.
An archived version can be seen here.
(Source: Twitter/Screenshot)
The user is also retweeting tweets posted by Mann's official account.
A pinned tweet on the profile has the photo of a woman with a caption that states in Punjabi 'the day of wedding.'
The impostor Twitter account with the username '@DrGurpreetKaur_'
(Source: Twitter/Screenshot)
Several news report like NDTV and Hindustan Times carried the pictures of the woman uploaded by this account, claiming that it shows Kaur.
THIS ISN'T MANN'S BRIDE, GURPREET KAUR'S ACCOUNT
We looked through the tweets and replies by '@DrGurpreetKaur_' and found a tweet from 16 March 2021, where the account had quote tweeted another tweet.
The username seen in this tweet was '@IndiaUprise.'
The account was run as '@IndiaUprise'.
(Source: Twitter/Screenshot)
Taking a cue, we retrieved a web archive from an internet archiving website called Wayback Machine and found that '@DrGurpreetKaur_' was initially run as '@IndiaUprise'.
The web archive was from 9 September 2021 which confirms that the account changed it's name after the news of Mann's wedding emerged, to impersonate Kaur.
Next, we checked for a web archive of a tweet from 29 September 2018 and found that the account also used to be run with the username '@SulochnaPandey'. This archive was from May 2021.
The same tweet from September 2018 was found on '@DrGurpreetKaur_' in which the previous username '@IndiaUprise' is still visible.
The Twitter ID also showed the original name of the account, Sulochna Pandey, instead of the current impostor name, Dr Gurpreet Kaur.
We ran the handle on Tweeter ID, a website that shows the unique numerical identifier assigned to every Twitter profile. The website returned the code '948603548534685696' for this account.
We found the unique ID associated with this account.
(Source: TweeterID/Screenshot)
Next, we checked the user ID of the archives of the account with username '@SulochnaPandey' and '@IndiaUprise'.
Both the account's user IDs matched the '@DrGurpreetKaur_' ID as '948603548534685696.'
The user IDs for both Twitter accounts matched that of the impostor account.
(Source: Wayback Machine/Altered by The Quint)
We did not find any tweet or mention of this account on Mann's verified Twitter account.
MANN GETS MARRIED TO GURPREET KAUR
Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann tied the knot with Dr Gurpreet Kaur. The wedding took place privately at his house in Chandigarh.
Visuals were shared by the attendee, Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) MP Raghav Chadha.
Mann getting married at Chandigarh in a private ceremony.
(Source: Raghav Chadha/Twitter/Screenshot)
The bride, Dr Gurpreet Kaur, is a working physician and hails from Haryana's Pehowa town but has lived in Punjab.
Evidently, a fake account of Dr Gurpreet Kaur cropped up during her wedding with the Punjab CM.
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