PATNA: A viral love story claiming that a Russian woman travelled thousands of kilometres to marry a man from a poor family in Bihar has turned out to be entirely fabricated, with the video actually featuring a British NGO representative visiting a village in Purnia for a social initiative.The story, which claimed that a Bhagalpur man named Rahul had fallen in love with a Russian woman called Julie while working in Russia, spread rapidly across social media. Several media platforms and local content creators amplified the claim, with videos about the alleged romance attracting millions of views. Some posts even claimed that the couple planned to marry in November 2026 with the consent of their families.However, the people featured in the video were misidentified, and the supposed international love story had no factual basis.The man in the video is Namit, a resident of Purnia district, not Rahul from Bhagalpur. The foreign woman is Andrea Connolly, who is associated with Shivia, a British non-governmental organisation. Shivia works with a local organisation, Saathi, in Purnia on initiatives aimed at helping women become self-employed.Abhishek Kumar Singh, coordinator of Saathi, said, “A six-member team of women visited Purnia on October 7 and 8 to understand the organisations’ grassroots work. Andrea was among the visitors. During the visit, local women welcomed the team with a bouquet of roses, and Andrea visited some of their homes.”Photographs of the interactions were subsequently uploaded to the organisation’s social media accounts. As the visitors moved through the village, curious residents gathered to see them. Namit was among the locals present, and someone recorded a video of the gathering.The footage was later circulated with a fabricated narrative about a romance between Namit and Andrea, falsely portraying her as a Russian woman named Julie who had travelled to Bihar to marry him. The bouquet visible in Andrea’s hands in the viral footage was the same one presented to her by the local women during the welcome.Singh said, “The women were guests of the organisation and expressed concern over the spread of the misleading video.”He said Saathi was considering legal action against those responsible for circulating the false claims.He also criticised media organisations for publishing the story without proper verification, saying the reports had damaged the reputation of the organisations involved and harmed India’s image.Attempts to contact Namit were unsuccessful, as his mobile phone was switched off.Local residents said he had never travelled abroad and had gone to a neighbouring village after learning that a group of foreign women had arrived there.It remains unclear who recorded and first circulated the video with the false claims, or whether Namit had any role in its dissemination. His possible involvement, if any, would need to be established through further inquiry.
