Photo Shows Yogi With BJP Leader Vikas Dubey, Not History-Sheeter

The person in the photo is BJP leader, area head of Kanpur-Bundelkhand of Bhartiya Janata Yuva Morcha, Vikas Dubey.

Social media users falsely claimed that the viral image showed UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath with the accused Vikas Dubey.

(Photo: Altered by The Quint)

Video Editor: Puneet Bhatia

Hours after eight police personnel were killed in a shoot out in Kanpur, while trying to arrest history-sheeter Vikas Dubey, a photo claiming to show Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath with the accused went viral on social media.

While the photo has not been tampered with, the person seen in it is a local BJP leader Vikas Dubey from Kanpur and not the accused criminal.

You can view the archived version here.(Source: Facebook/ Screenshot)

CLAIM

The claim in the image reads: “योगी जी के साथ कानपूर एनकाउंटर के मुख्या अभियुक्त विकास दुबे” (Translated: Yogi ji with the prime accused in Kanpur encounter case Vikas Dubey).

Several social media users have shared the image on Facebook and Twitter with similar narrative.

You can view the archived version here.(Source: Facebook/ Screenshot)

You can view the archived version here.(Source: Twitter/ Screenshot)

You can view the archived version here.(Source: Twitter/ Screenshot)

WHAT WE FOUND OUT

A local reporter told The Quint that the person in question is not the history-sheeter Vikas Dubey, but a local BJP leader of the same name from Kanpur.

We found that Vikas Dubey, who identifies himself as the area head of Kanpur-Bundelkhand of Bhartiya Janata Yuva Morcha, had issued a clarification on Facebook on the viral image saying: “अफवाहों से बचे, अधिक से अधिक शेयर करके लोगों को सच्चाई से अवगत कराएं (Translation: Beware of rumours. Share it as much as possible so that people are aware of the truth)."

He also posted a video in which he can be heard saying that some people on social media are associating his identity to that of the accused Vikas Dubey. He further said that he is going to take action against people responsible for the same.

As far as the viral image is concerned, we found that the BJP leader had uploaded it on Facebook in November 2019.

Further, we also compared the faces of BJP leader (left) and criminal Vikas Dubey (right) and saw a clear difference between the two.

Left: BJP Leader Vikas  Dubey. Right: History-sheeter Vikas Dubey.(Photo: Altered by The Quint)

Evidently, social media users falsely claimed that the viral image showed UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath with the accused Vikas Dubey.

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