This Image Doesn't Show Akhilesh Yadav Performing Last Rites of Mulayam Singh

This image shows journalist Ashish Misra performing the last rites of his father.

An image of a man performing last rites is going viral on social media with a claim that it shows Samajwadi Party (SP) President Akhilesh Yadav lighting the pyre of his father and SP patriarch Mulayam Singh Yadav, who passed away on 10 October at Medanta hospital in Gurugram.

Yadav was cremated with full state honours at his native village in UP's Saifai on 11 October.

However, this image does not show Yadav. It shows journalist, Ashish Misra, performing the last rites of his father who passed away, on the same day as Yadav.

CLAIM

The photo is being shared on social media along with hashtags linking it to the Yadav family. The same photo was also shared by a Hindi media outlet, Navsatta, claiming to show Yadav.

Similar claims can be seen here and here.

WHAT WE FOUND OUT 

On conducting a reverse image search on the picture, we came across a Facebook post by a journalist, Ashish Misra, who had uploaded the image on 11 October 2022.

The post caption, originally in Hindi, read, "Extremely painful time in life."

Misra had also put up a post on Facebook on 10 October informing people about his father's demise. He also mentioned that the last rites will be held on 11 October at 11 am in Lucknow.

Senior journalist Naved Shikoh also posted a clarification of Facebook stating that this photo shows Misra performing rites for his father in Lucknow and is not related to Yadav.

Several photos from Yadav's funeral were posted by SP's official Twitter handle which clarified that the viral image is unrelated to the claim.

The Quint's reporter Piyush Rai had tweeted visuals from the cremation ground, which showed Akhilesh Yadav lighting the pyre.

"Netaji" laid to rest. pic.twitter.com/KPOMSwdmat

— Piyush Rai (@Benarasiyaa) October 11, 2022

Clearly, unrelated picture is being shared on social media claiming to show Akhilesh Yadav performing his father's last rites.

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