A post is being shared on social media claiming that Bird Group’s Executive Director Ankur Bhatia passed away due to a sudden cardiac arrest after recovering from Coronavirus.
The post also mentioned that he is the owner of ‘ Indigo airlines’.
The viral post, “Ankur Bhatia, the owner of Indigo airlines, passed away at the age of 48 due to a sudden cardiac arrest as he was on a cycle ride. He had just recovered from COVID-19 a few weeks back. This is a grim reminder to not overdo things till 3 months after full recovery.”
The link to the post can be seen here.
Similar posts can also be seen here, here and here.
FACT CHECK
NewsMobile did a fact-check and found the claim to be misleading.
On searching with the keywords, we came across many media reports about the demise of Ankur Bhatia. The reports mentioned that he passed away due to cardiac arrest but COVID-19 was not mentioned in the reports.
According to a report published by LiveMint on June 4, 2021, Ankur Bhatia, the Executive Director of travel and hospitality conglomerate, Bird Group, died in New Delhi after a massive cardiac arrest. The report said that he was born to Bird Group’s President Vijay Bhatia and his wife Radha Bhatia in 1973, and is survived by his wife Smriti Bhatia and two children.
According to The Times of India, Ankur Bhatia brought the travel technology giant Amadeus brand to the Indian subcontinent in 1994 and had also set up luxury hospitality chain Roseate Hotels & Resorts which has properties in India and the United Kingdom.
We also searched the website of Bird Group but nowhere did it mention that Bird Group owns Indigo Airlines or Ibis Hotels.
The website mentioned that the Bird Group owns Bird Worldwide Flight Services (BWFS), GlobeGround India, Bird Catering and Lounges, Gitanjali Travels etc in the aviation sector, and Roseate Hotels and Resorts in hospitality. There are many other business verticals owned by Bird Group but none of them mentions Indigo Airline or Ibis Hotels.
Ibis Hotel is owned by Accor, a French multinational hospitality company and IndiGo Airlines was founded in 2006.
A tweet by journalist Vir Sanghvi, dated June 5, 2021, also clarified that Ankur Bhatia was NOT the owner of Ibis hotels or IndiGo. His tweet read, “Saddened by the tragic passing of Ankur Bhatia but appalled by the WhatsApp forwards doing the rounds. He was not the owner of Indigo & Ibis & he had not had Covid a few weeks ago. (He had a mild case 8 months ago.) Why spread misinformation & panic & hurt the bereaved family?”
Bird Group also tweeted to inform that Ankur Bhatia did not pass away due to cardiac arrest post recovering from Coronavirus. Bird Group tweeted, “The following WhatsApp message is doing rounds – adding to the agony of the bereaved & is a disrespect to our dear Dr Bhatia. Dr Ankur Bhatia’s sudden demise was due to a massive cardiac arrest at home, and NOT Covid. Please refer to our official statement for correct details.”
The claim that Ankur Bhatia was the owner of IndiGo Airlines and Ibis Hotel is fake. Also, he did not die while recovering from coronavirus but due to a massive cardiac arrest. Hence, we can say that the viral claim is misleading.
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