Fact Check: Old images of suicides being shared with the Agnipath protest link

New Delhi, Jun 20: There have been violent protests after the government announcement the military recruitment scheme, Agnipath. Several users have been sharing images of protests and the casualties.

One such image that has gone viral shows visuals of young men who have allegedly killed themselves over the Agnipath scheme.

Since the announcement of the scheme protests have broken out at Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Telangana, Uttar Pradesh, Haryana and Rajasthan. Amidst this a collage of screenshots taken from different images has been shared with the claim that several men had killed themselves over the scheme. The image has been shared over 200 times with 200 likes. The same collar has been shared by many other users with the caption, 'shame on government.'

The first image is however from March 2020 and was that of Sunil Kumar a resident of Haryana. He had killed himself over alleged harassment by his wife an in-laws.

The second image according to Newschecker is from June 19 2019. This was an image of a couple who were staying days at a hotel in Kurukshetra and they had died by suicide.

The third is from November 2019 and was shot in Jhabua, Madhya Pradesh. Reports said that 25 year old Babbu was in a love affair with a girl while he was married and had three kids. However the reason for the death is not clear.

The third image is from June 4 2022 and was shot at the Kaira village. The 38 year old man Rajendra Pradhan had taken his life due to unknown reasons.

The fifth image is from October 2020 and the incident took place in Lakhimpur Kheri in Uttar Pradesh.

Initially, under the 'Agnipath' scheme, youths aged between 17-and-a-half and 21 were to be recruited in the Army, Navy and the Air Force, largely on a four-year short-term contractual basis.

Subsequently, the Centre raised the upper age limit for recruitment under the scheme to 23 years for 2022 as protests against it intensified.

Thereafter, the Central government also announced several incentives including reserving 10 per cent vacancies in its paramilitary and the Defence Ministry for Agnipath retirees and said it would look into any grievance about the new military recruitment scheme "with an open mind'.

Those recruited under the scheme would be known as 'Agniveers'.

After the completion of the four-year tenure, 25 per cent of the recruits from each batch would be offered regular service.

The announcement of the new scheme came in the backdrop of recruitment into the military remaining stalled for over two years.

The Army recruits 50,000 to 60,000 soldiers annually. However, the recruitment could not take place for the last two years due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Agnipath scheme was introduced only last week and it is clear from these images that they are old and have been shared out of context.