A man was booked for allegedly sharing a photo on his social media account showing Samajwadi Party President Akhilesh Yadav and his wife Dimple Yadav paying tributes at the grave of gangster-turned-politician Atiq Ahmed on Wednesday. After the doctored photo went viral on social media, local SP leader Sandeep Yadav filed a complaint against the miscreant.
Rajeev Yadav, Additional Superintendent of Police (ASP) Colonelganj stated that the case was registered at the Georgetown police station against the miscreant, identified as Manoj Srivastava under section 504 (intentional insult with intent to provoke breach of peace) of the Indian Penal Code and section 67 of the IT Act.
Sandeep Yadav alleged in his complaint that the original photo was of former UP CM Akhilesh Yadav and his wife paying tributes at the samadhi of his father Mulayam Singh Yadav but Srivastava had doctored the image, showing the couple paying respects to the slain gangster instead, news agency PTI reported.
He also alleged that the accused had been consistently making indecent remarks against Akhilesh Yadav and Dimple Yadav.
In the pic, the couple can be seen bowing with folded hands with flowers in their hands. Manoj Srivastava posted the picture on his social media platform X on March 3 and captioned the post "On the grave of Atiq Ahmed and Ashraf, who were killed in the encounter, their son and daughter-in-law, Akhilesh and Dimple Yadav.' Many users reportedly shared the post and made similar claims.
On reverse searching the photo, it turned out to be a post made on November 14, 2022, shared by Akhilesh Yadav himself. He had shared two photos back then one of which was the same photo that was doctored by Shrivastava.
Mulayam Singh Yadav, three-time former Chief Minister of UP died on October 10, 2022 at Vedanta Hospital in Gurugram. His mortal remains were taken to Netaji's native village in Saifai where his last rites were performed with state honours.
Atiq Ahmed and his brother Ashraf Ahmed were shot dead in Prayagraj in April 2023.