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Fact Check
Claim
One of the accused in Atiq Ahmed’s murder case photographed with Akhilesh Yadav.
Fact
Man seen in viral photograph is a Youth Congress leader from Madhya Pradesh.
The cold blooded murder of gangster-turned-politician Atiq Ahmed and his brother Ashraf on live television, while in police custody has triggered the Opposition parties to attack Yogi Adityanath’s government over “lawlessness” in Uttar Pradesh. While many have raised their voice against the UP authorities, others have alleged Akhilesh Yadav-led Samajwadi Party for orchestrating the cold blooded killing. Several social media users shared a photograph of Akhilesh Yadav swamped in a crowd of people, one of whom was highlighted as the alleged killer of Atiq Ahmed.
The image is being widely shared as evidence to show Yadav and the Samajwadi party’s role in Atiq Ahmed’s killing. They further claimed that Ahmed and his brother knew “many black things about Samajwadi Party. Akhilesh Yadav with the help of his party people killed him. Now we know who is the real killer. (sic)”
Such posts can be seen here, here, here and here.
Also Read: Did Accused In Atiq Ahmed Murder Case Chant ‘Jai Shree Ram’? Here’s What We Found
Atiq Ahmad won the Allahabad West parliamentary seat on a Samajwadi Party ticket in 1996. However, he left the party to join the Apna Dal, where he served as the President between 1999 and 2003. Following this, Atiq made a comeback to the Samajwadi Party and was elected as an MP from Uttar Pradesh’s Phulpur in the 2004 Lok Sabha election. In 2008, Atiq was expelled by the Samajwadi leadership after he surrendered in the 2005 Raju Pal murder case. He rejoined the party and contested in the 2014 Lok Sabha election which he lost to the BJP.
We began by ascertaining the authenticity of the viral photograph and conducted a reverse image search on Google. This led us to a Facebook post by SP Chief Akhilesh Yadav, dated April 13, 2023, carrying a series of photographs with the caption, “Today in Madhya Pradesh (translated from Hindi).”
The viral photograph was featured in the post too, leading up to the conclusion that it has not been digitally modified but is authentic.
Akhilesh Yadav had undertaken a two-day-tour to Madhya Pradesh last week. During his visit, the SP Chief paid tributes to the statue of Subhash Yadav, Congress leader and former Deputy CM of Madhya Pradesh, at village Borawa in Khargone district
Also Read: Viral Video Does Not Show Atiq Ahmed’s Son’s Funeral, Here’s What It Really Shows
Following this, we scanned through the comment sections of various posts carrying the viral photograph and found a user pointing out that the man seen in the image is the Sehore District President of Youth Congress, Rajkumar Yadav.
Taking a clue, we looked up “जिला अध्यक्ष युवा कांग्रेस सीहोर राजकुमार यादव” on Google, which yielded Yadav’s Facebook profile.
The photographs of Yadav in his Facebook profile resembled the man seen in the viral.
Newschecker further reached out to Rajkumar Yadav who confirmed that the man seen in the viral photograph was him. He added that the photo was taken during a public event, Shradhanjali Sabha (memorial service) of Subhash Yadav on April 13.
Yadav also shared others photographs of him with Newschecker. The same can be seen below.
A keyword search for “Atiq Ahmed murder accused” on Google yielded multiple reports identifying the three shooters as Mohit alias Sunny, Lavlesh Tiwari and Arun Maurya. The photographs of the alleged assailants were also featured in several reports.
Viral post claiming that an accused in Atiq Ahmed’s murder case was photographed with SP Chief Akhilesh Yadav is false.
Sources
Facebook Post By @yadavakhilesh, Dated April 13, 2023
Facebook Profile Of @rajkumar.y.ii
Tweet By @Dineshy21, Dated April 16, 2023
Telephonic Conversation With Rajkumar Yadav On April 14, 2023
(With inputs from Saurabh Pandey)
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