Daijiworld Media Network - Chikkamagaluru (SP)

Chikkamagaluru, Apr 18: Naveen from Kallugudde near Menasina Hadya in Koppa taluk in the district is just 24. But stories of his achievements and adventures he is involved with and how his life was saved by a whisker and why he was bestowed with Shaurya Chakra gallantry award are enough to give goose bumps to listeners. Gentle behaviour and excellent storytelling skills on his part had convinced many to hold Naveen in awe and felicitate him on various forums where he was presented with citations.

However, a Kannada daily which took up verification of his claims came to the conclusion that Naveen is not even in the security forces. Several organizations had already requested him to accept their honour, impressed by his stories, and conferred the same on him. He claims that he had bagged eighth rank in the All India level National Defence Academy examination and that he would have been serving as captain of 354th transit camp at Anantnag, Jammu and Kashmir, but for coronavirus issues bothering the nation.

Naveen

When he was asked to provide photo of awards function, Naveen said that they were in the military camp laptop and he could not bring it as he directly came home after the avalanche at Siachin glacier. When his attention was drawn to the fact that his name was not in the list of Sharya Chakra awardees, he said there must be some mistake. The newspaper later realised that he had photoshopped his photo by pasting his face to a military uniform and had begun to speak in functions about how to get admission into armed forces, how to face examinations, physical fitness etc. After intensive questioning however, he confessed that he had cheated the people.

Naveen had claimed he suffered fracture of the leg after being victim of avalanche at Siachin in 2017 August and was treated at KMC Hospital. He claimed that he had killed 11 of the 18 terrorists who attacked his contingent when at Samba, because of which he had won the Sharya Chakra. All these claims have been since found to be cooked up.