Social media posts claiming the government of Philippines has "fired" diplomat Nilesh Kumar Rai at the Indian Embassy in Manila, after news reports revealed one of the two gunman involved in the Bondi beach terror attack in Australia, travelled to the Philippines on an Indian passport, are fake.
A fabricated letter claiming to be from Philippine's Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA), to bolster the claim is fake. BOOM found several inconsistencies in the letter. In addition India's Ministry of External Affairs' official fact-check handle, debunked the claim.
Two gunmen, identified as Sajid Akram (50) and his son Naveed Akram (24), carried out a mass shooting during a Jewish Hanukkah celebration at Bondi Beach, Sydney, Australia, on December 14, 2025. They killed at least 15 people and injured many others. One of the gunmen was shot dead by police, and the other was critically wounded and later charged. The News Minute reported that Sajid Akram was originally from Hyderabad, India, and that Telangana police stated he had no adverse record in India before leaving migrating to Australia in 1998.
The Claim
An Instagram user shared the fake letter with the caption, "Declaration of Persona Non Grata is very rare Why did the Philippines government take this step at such a critical time? Indian-origin Bondi Beach terrorists visited the Philippines on Indian passports in November and stayed for almost a month. Niliesh Kumar Rai is a Visa Officer. Is this action linked to the Bondi Beach case?"
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The false claim was also amplified by an X account with the username @ZardanSi who tweeted, "BREAKING: Indian Consular Secretary Nilesh Kumar at the Indian Embassy in the Philippines has been fired by the Philippine government and told to leave within 48 hours. This comes after reports showed that Sajid Akram visited Philippines on Indian Passport."
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What We Found
Viral Letter Is Fake: BOOM ran a related keyword search but did not find any news reports corroborating the viral claim. We also checked the website of the Department of the Foreign Affairs, Philippines but found no such notification.
Moreover, a thorough reading of the document revealed errors in punctuation and grammatical mistakes. We also found the multiple statements released by the DFA, Philippines on their official Facebook page. A comparison of the two revealed difference in fonts, the colour used in the headline, style of writing the date line. The viral document is entirely written in italics while, other statements posted officially by the DFA are not.
Manila is written in capital letters and the publication month is written in full in all official communication unlike the viral letter.
MEA Fact Check also debunked the viral claim.
