Fact-Check: Is This a Photo of Delhi CM’s Attacker With AAP's Gopal Italia? No!

The image has been altered using AI to make the false claim about Gopal Italia and Delhi CM Rekha Gupta's attacker.

An AI-manipulated image is being shared with the false claim that it shows the man who attacked Delhi CM Rekha Gupta, standing with AAP leader Gopal Italia.

(Source: X/Altered by The Quint)

A photo showing Aam Aadmi Party's (AAP) MLA from Gujarat, Gopal Italia, standing with a man who looks like Rajeshbhai Khimjibhai Sakaria, the man who recently attacked Delhi Chief Minister Rekha Gupta at her residence on 20 August.

The claim: The image is being widely shared to insinuate that the AAP orchestrated the attack on Gupta, who is associated with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

• Among other social media users, BJP Delhi's MLA Harish Khurana shared this image, asking former Delhi CM and AAP leader Arvind Kejriwal for an explanation.

An archived version of Khurana's post can be seen here.

Source: X/Screenshot)

Khurana's post had gathered over 3.5 lakh views at the time of writing this report.

(Archived versions of more posts sharing this claim can be seen here, here, and here.)

But...?: Italia's photo was altered using Artificial Intelligence (AI) to make this false connection.

• In the original visuals which were taken from a video, Italia can be seen with another man, not Sakaria.

How did we find out the truth?: We ran a reverse image search on the viral photo using Google Images, which led us to a Facebook page called 'Nirbhay News'.

• The page had shared a video showing similar visuals of Italia on 2 August.

• However, in this video, the person standing next to Italia was not Sakaria

The video shows another man next to Italia.

(Source: Facebook/Screenshot)

• We looked for similar visuals on Italia's social media accounts, and saw that he had shared the video in question on his verified Facebook page on 2 August.

• On comparing these visuals next to each other, one can see that a screenshot from this video of Italia's was used to create the altered image.

Both images show Italia with different men.

(Source: Facebook/Altered by The Quint)

• On his X account, Italia called out Khurana's post, saying, "You took some screenshots from this old video of mine, edited them, and posted fake photos."

• Italia also appealed to the media "not to run news" based on Khurana's post without verification, saying that he would be "forced to take legal action."

Edited image: Since the manipulation of the image appeared to be smooth, we ran it through AI-generated content detectors.

• Hive Moderation's tool was 86.8 percent confident that the image was altered using AI.

The tool said it was "likely to contain AI-generated or deepfake content."

(Source: Hive Moderation/Screenshot)

• SightEngine's analysis was more confident about the image likely being a deepfake, giving it a 99 percent score for facial manipulation.

SightEngine was confident that the image used AI-based facial manipulation.

(Source: SightEngine/Screenshot)

• Similarly, AI or Not also highlighted Sakaria's face, noting that it was "likely deepfake."

It highlighted Sakaria's face.

(Source: AI or Not/Screenshot)

Conclusion: An AI-manipulated image is being shared to falsely claim that Delhi CM Rekha Gupta's attacker, one Rajeshbhai Khimjibhai Sakaria, was previously photographed with AAP's Gopal Italia.

(Not convinced of a post or information you came across online and want it verified? Send us the details on WhatsApp at 9540511818 , or e-mail it to us at [e-mail] and we'll fact-check it for you. You can also read all our fact-checked stories here.)