| schema:text
| - "Like father, like son": Netizens slam Kailash Vijayvargiya over old photo, but truth is something else
While the incident involving Akash Vijayvargiya is well known by now, many on social media and even some media organisations have fallen for the photo which does not show what it looks like at first glance.
Listen to Story
India Today Fact Check
Vijayvargiya was merely showing his shoe to explain something.
Akash Vijayvargiya, son of BJP national general secretary Kailash Vijayvargiya, who thrashed a municipal corporation officer with a bat in Indore, was sent to judicial custody on Wednesday.
Around the same time, an old, black and white photo featuring Vijayvargiya Senior started doing the rounds on social media. The picture shows an aggressive Kailash Vijayvargiya holding a shoe near the face of a man, while some people, including policemen in uniform, look on.
It is being claimed that the man being attacked by Kailash Vijayvargiya is ASP Pramod Fadnikar. After the video went viral, netizens started making sarcastic comments that in attacking the municipal officer with a bat, Akash merely replicated what he learnt from his father.
Apart from social media users many media organisations too carried stories about this photo which seems to suggest that the officer in the picture was indeed the target of the shoe.
1994 ASP pic.twitter.com/8gRLWSivY3 Tajendra Rajora (@TajendraRajora) June 27, 2019
India Today’s Anti Fake News War Room (AFWA) dug deeper to find the origin of the photo and the true story behind the 25-year-old photograph. The real story turns out to be something else. The officer was neither attacked nor threatened by Kailash Vijayvargiya.
Who is the man being attacked with a shoe?
Since the viral messages talk about an ASP named Pramod Fadnikar’ in 1994, we started searching for him. We then came across an IPS officer with a similar name Pramod Shripad Phalnikar who was posted in Indore at that time.
The man in the photo to whom Kailash Vijayvargiya is showing his shoe is 1989 batch IPS officer Pramod Shripad Phalnikar of Madhya Pradesh cadre. Currently posted in New Delhi as IG, NSG, Phalnikar has served in Madhya Pradesh most of his life in different capacities.
Is the photo morphed?
No, the photo is not morphed. It was clicked in 1994 in Indore by the photographer of an evening newspaper Prabhat Kiran’. The man with a shoe in hand is indeed Kailash Vijayvargiya who was then MLA from Indore, and the policeman in uniform standing there is Arun Jain, who was then the station officer of Tukoganj police station in Indore.
Pramod Shripad Phalnikar, to whom Vijayvargiya can be seen talking to, was posted as Additional SP (City) in Indore at that time.
Did Kailash Vijayvargiya misbehave with Phalnikar?
We spoke to Phalnikar about the incident. He confirmed that the man in the photo is indeed him. Narrating the 25-year-old story, he recalled that at that time, the Pardesipura area of Indore was facing acute water crisis and Kailash Vijayvargiya, along with his supporters, was doing a chakka-jam’ on the Mumbai- Agra highway.
Being the ASP, I went there and convinced him to end the dharna with a promise that I will talk to the municipal commissioner to get the problem resolved. He agreed to end the road blockade, said Phalnikar.
However, the water crisis did not get resolved even after a few days. We then got to know that Vijayvargiya and his men have decided to gherao the house of a senior municipal officer. We arranged for security at his house and I reached the spot once again and was trying to dissuade Vijayvargiya to march to the officials’ house. I clearly remember that the man in police uniform in the picture is Arun Jain, the station officer of that area, said Phalnikar.
This was the moment when he took off his shoe and showed it to me saying Aapke kehne par humne uss din dharna khatam kar diya tha. Municipal office ke chakkar laga laga kar hamare jutey ghis gaye par kuch hua nahi. Ab toh inke ghar jaa kar hi baat karni hogi (On your request, we ended the dharna the other day. See, my shoes have worn out runningaround the municipal office, but nothing came out of it! Now we will have to talk to the officials at their home).
This was precisely the moment when the photographer of a local evening newspaper Prabhat Kiran’ had clicked this picture. Since then, this photograph has been resurfacing multiple times causing unnecessary controversy, Phalnikar lamented.
Phalnikar emphasised that at no point Vijayvargiya threatened him because his anger was directed towards the municipal officials and not him. He points out that one can see in the photograph that policemen at the spot were standing patiently. If the MLA would have misbehaved with their officer, it is unlikely that the policemen would not react and keep on looking calmly.
To further confirm the incident, we tried to contact the photographer of Prabhat Kiran’ in Indore who is said to have clicked the photo in 1994. However, he could not be reached. The story will be updated once we get a response from him.
While the incident involving Akash Vijayvargiya is well known by now, many on social media and even some media organisations have fallen for the photo which does not show what it looks like at first glance.
Please share it on our at 73 7000 7000
You can also send us an email at factcheck@intoday.com
|
![[RDF Data]](/fct/images/sw-rdf-blue.png)
![[cxml]](/fct/images/cxml_doc.png)
![[csv]](/fct/images/csv_doc.png)
![[text]](/fct/images/ntriples_doc.png)
![[turtle]](/fct/images/n3turtle_doc.png)
![[ld+json]](/fct/images/jsonld_doc.png)
![[rdf+json]](/fct/images/json_doc.png)
![[rdf+xml]](/fct/images/xml_doc.png)
![[atom+xml]](/fct/images/atom_doc.png)
![[html]](/fct/images/html_doc.png)