Journalist lighting pyre in viral picture passed off as SP chief Akhilesh Yadav
Social media users are sharing a picture claiming the man lighting the pyre is Akhilesh Yadav.
By Md Mahfooz Alam Published on 13 Oct 2022 7:23 AM GMT
Social media users are sharing a picture claiming the man lighting the pyre is Akhilesh Yadav.
Akhilesh lit the pyre of his father Mulayam Singh Yadav, the founder of the Samajwadi Party (SP) who passed away on October 10 at Medanta hospital in Gurugram. But the man in the picture is not Akhilesh.
Click here to see the posts.
Several other Twitter and Facebook users have shared the photo with the same claim. (Click here and here to see the posts.)
Fact Check
NewsMeter performed a reverse image search of the viral photo and found that a journalist, BhadohiWallah, working with Nav Bharat Times took to Twitter to debunk the fake claims that Akhilesh Yadav is not performing the last rites of his father in the viral photo. He wrote that the man seen in the photo is Ashish Mishra, a senior journalist from Lucknow, who is performing the last rites of his father.
We found the same photo posted on Facebook on 1 October by Ashish Mishra describing it as the "most painful moment of his life."
On 10 October, Mishra also put up a post on Facebook informing people that his father has passed away and the last rites will be held on 11 October at 11 am in Lucknow.
Further, we found several pictures of the funeral of Mulayam Singh Yadav posted by the official handle of the Samajwadi Party in which Akhilesh Yadav can be seen performing the last rites of his father. But we did not find any of these pictures similar to the viral photo.
Akhilesh Yadav also posted two pictures of cremation expressing his sadness at the departure of his father from his life.
It is evident that the viral photo is of Ashish Mishra performing the last rites of his father. Hence, the claim that the viral photo shows Akhilesh Yadav lighting the pyre of his father is misleading.
