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.

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.

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

• 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.

• 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."

हरीश खुराना जी, आप की ख़ुद की तो किसी ट्रोलर से ज़्यादा इज्जत है नहीं लेकिन ऐसी घटिया हरकत करने से पहले अपने पिताजी मदनलाल जी की इज्जत की तो परवाह कर लेते?

दो रूपिये Per ट्वीट के हिसाब से काम कर रहे भाजपाई छुटभैये से भी निम्न स्तर के आप के कारनामे देखकर स्वर्गीय मदनलाल खुराना… https://t.co/KjeG09XACl

— Gopal Italia (@Gopal_Italia) August 20, 2025

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.

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

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

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.

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