A photo showing Samajwadi Party (SP) leader Akhilesh Yadav among a group of people is being shared on social media platforms.
Two people in the group were highlighted in the photo, which is being shared to claim that it shows two of the three people who fatally shot Atiq Ahmed and his brother Ashraf in Uttar Pradesh’s Prayagraj on 15 April.
The claim: Sharing this photo, social media users are claiming that the Samajwadi Party was behind Atiq Ahmed’s killing.
An archive of this post can be seen here.
(Source: Twitter/Screenshot)
A website called Indus Scrolls amplified this claim.
(Archives of posts making the same claim can be seen here, here and here.)
But…?: The claim is false.
We identified the two people as Sehore Indian Youth Congress (IYC) President Rajkumar Yadav and former Dewas councillor Vikram Patel.
Both men in the photo are associated with the Congress party in Madhya Pradesh.
How did we find out?: We ran a reverse image search on the viral photo and found that SP leader Akhilesh Yadav had shared it as a part of a thread on his verified Twitter account on 13 April, mentioning that it showed visuals from Madhya Pradesh.
Akhilesh Yadav shared the photo on Twitter.
(Source: Twitter/Screenshot)
The Quint’s Madhya Pradesh reporter identified one of the two people as Sehore IYC President Rajkumar Yadav and the other as former Dewas councillor Vikram Patel from Madhya Pradesh.
We reached out to both Congress members from Madhya Pradesh.
Congress members confirm identities: Speaking to The Quint, Yadav confirmed that it was him in the viral photo and that he was associated with the Congress.
(Note: Swipe to view both photos.)
This man was identified as Rajkumar Yadav.
(Source: Twitter/Altered by The Quint)
“It is my photo. The picture was taken on 13 April in Khargone district in Madhya Pradesh. Akhilesh Yadav had come to pay his respects to former Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Subash Yadav’s statue there.”Rajkumar Yadav, Sehore IYC President
He added that he would file a complaint with the Superintendent of Police (SP) over the false claim.
The other person, identified as former Dewas councillor Vikram Patel too confirmed that it was him in the photo.
(Note: Swipe to view both photos.)
This man was identified as Vikram Patel.
(Source: Twitter/Altered by The Quint)
“Yes, that is my photo. Akhilesh Yadav had come to Khandwa here to pay respects to Subhash Yadav’s statue. I have good relations with Arun Yadav (Subhash Yadav’s son), so I had also attended the event," Patel told The Quint.
Patel stated that he was from the Congress party. “I had been the councillor in Dewas for 10-15 years and I’m the leader of the Opposition at the municipal level here now.”
The accused in Atiq Ahmed’s killing: The three people accused of killing Atiq and Ashraf Ahmed were identified as Lavlesh Tiwari (22), Mohit alias Shani Purane (23) and Arun Kumar Maurya (18) in an FIR by the Uttar Pradesh Police.
The Quint accessed the photo of the three accused.
(Left to right) Arun Maurya, Sunny Purane and Lavlesh Tiwari
(Source: Accessed by The Quint)
Conclusion: A photo of Samajwadi Party leader Akhilesh Yadav, which shows two party members associated with the Congress party in Madhya Pradesh is being shared to falsely claim that they were the ones accused of shooting Atiq Ahmed in Uttar Pradesh's Prayagraj and are associated with the Samajwadi Party.
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