Several media organisations shared a photograph of a man along with one of gangster-turned politician Atiq Ahmed, claiming that it showed Ahmed's son Asad Ahmed, who was killed in a police encounter on Thursday.
Who shared the photo?: Media organisations such as Times of India, Times Now, Siasat Daily, ABP Uncut, and Economic Times shared the photo as one of Asad Ahmed, along with Millat Times' editor Shams Tabrez.
(Note: Swipe to view all claims.)
Times of India identified the man as Asad Ahmed.
(Source: Times of India/Screenshot)
But that's not Asad!: The photo shows Ali Ahmed, one of Atiq Ahmed's younger sons.
Ali was imprisoned for a 2021 extortion case at Naini Central Jail in UP's Prayagraj.
The Allahabad High Court rejected Ali Ahmed's bail application in March, stating that letting him out on bail would threaten " not only the witnesses" but also society.
About Asad Ahmed: The Uttar Pradesh Police said that Asad Ahmed, son of Atiq Ahmed, who was wanted in the Umesh Pal murder case was killed in an encounter with the Uttar Pradesh Special Task Force on Thursday, 13 April.
Another accused, named Ghulam was also shot dead in the encounter. Both the deceased carried a bounty of Rs 5 lakh each.
How did we find out?: We ran a reverse image search on the viral photo.
This led us to an article published by Zee Salaam in January, which identified the man as Atiq Ahmed's son Ali.
Taking a cue from this, we looked for more photos of Ali Ahmed.
We saw that Dainik Bhaskar and Live Hindustan had also used this photo, identifying the man as Ali Ahmed.
The Uttar Pradesh Police released photographs of the two accused who died during the encounter with the UP Special Task Force.
Here, one can see that the person killed during the encounter was not Ali Ahmed.
The Quint's Uttar Pradesh correspondent Piyush Rai confirmed that the photo being shared as that of Asad's showed Ali Ahmed, Atiq Ahmed's other son.
Conclusion: The man in the photo is Ali Ahmed, the younger son of gangster-turned politician Atiq Ahmed and not Asad Ahmed, who was killed in an encounter on 13 April.
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