Recently, a heinous crime was committed in Uttar Pradesh where a 19-year-old girl was gang-raped and badly injured. However after a few days of treatment, the girl succumbed to her injuries at Safdarjung Hospital in Delhi. Since this incident was exposed, there have been protests all over India demanding justice for this girl and strict punishment for the criminals associated with this incident. The incident is from Hathras village, where a 19-year-old girl was forced into the fields and raped by 4 persons. Meanwhile, on social media some pictures are being made viral claiming that the person marked in red is the father of Sandeep, one of the accused in the Hathras case, who can be seen in the pictures with Modi ji and Yogi Adityanath.
FACT-CHECK
| The photos are of BJP leader Shyam Prakash Dwivedi from Prayagraj, he has no connection with the Hathras case. It has been clarified by his father that he has two children, aged 13 and 6 years.Shyam Prakash Dwivedi was wanted by the Prayagraj police in another gang rape case and was absconding for the last several days. Eventually he has been arrested and sent to jail on 3/10/2020 by the Prayagraj police. |
We investigated the above claim by searching about the accused of the Hathras incident on Google. As a result, we found many media reports according to which the names of the four accused who perpetrated the incident are
- Sandeep
- Ramu
- Luvkush
- Ravi
You can see the picture of these accused and information about them in the news bulletin published by Aaj Tak below.
The District Magistrate and Superintendent of Police of Hathras can be heard giving the details of this incident from the official Twitter account of Hathras Police.
According to the news published by The Wire, all the four accused involved in the crime in Hathras belong to a Thakur family, who are considered an upper caste.
Although all these news reports further indicate that the accused belong to the Thakur community, it does not clearly prove that BJP leader Shyam Prakash Dwivedi is really related to any of these accused nor does this establish that the accused Sandeep is his son.
To confirm this, we contacted the new SP Vineet Jaiswal of Hathras. He clarified to us that all the accused in this case are local residents of Hathras. None of those accused have a father by the name is Shyam Prakash Dwivedi, nor is any accused the son of any BJP leader. It is wrong to link this episode with the son of a leader on social forums; the four accused have been caught and sent to jail.
He sent us a photocopy of the case registered in Thana Haja involving the case, in which clearly the name of the accused Sandeep’s father is mentioned as Sunil alias Guddu .
Since the person seen in the viral picture with the BJP veterans was being linked to the case, which proved to be wrong, but it is still necessary to know who is the person appearing in the photo.
After searching through reverse image on Google using the picture of the person seen in the claim, we found this picture available on the Twitter account of Shyam Prakash Dwivedi.
These photos are also available on Shyam Prakash Dwivedi’s Facebook profile. We also found pictures of other BJP leaders uploaded on another page with the same name along with Shyam Prakash Dwivedi.
According to the details given on Shyam Prakash Dwivedi’s Twitter and Facebook, Shyam Prakash Dwivedi is a senior BJP leader from Prayagraj in UP and vice-president of Kashi region. On searching keywords on Google, we received many media reports about Shyam Prakash Dwivedi. According to the reports published by Zee News and DNA on 16th September 2020, Shyam Prakash Dwivedi is an accused in the gang rape case of 2019. The Prayagraj police had registered a case against him on 16th September 2020. Reports also said that Shyam Prakash Dwivedi is the vice president of the Kashi unit of the BJP Yuva Morcha.
Thereafter, Fact Crescendo contacted Prayagraj BJP President Ashwani Dubey who told us that: “The viral picture that is of BJP leader Shyam Prakash Dwivedi. Ram Raksha Dwivedi is the Father of Shyam Prakash Dwivedi. He was the former Vice-President of Prayagraj, I know him well, due to which I also know Shyam Prakash Dwivedi. He has no connection with the Hathras case.”
On searching keywords on Google, we also came to know that in 2017, Shyam Prakash Dwivedi was in the headlines after he announced a reward of Rs 1 crore to whoever cut off the tongue of All-India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) Chief Asaduddin Owaisi.
Although Shyam Prakash Dwivedi was suspended from the BJP after this statement, he was later inducted into the party as per media reports. In the news published in Patrika, we can see the picture of Shyam Prakash Dwivedi. The person shown in Patrika news and the person shown in the viral picture are the same.
Thereafter, Fact Crescendo contacted Shyam Prakash Dwivedi’s father, Ram Raksha Dwivedi, who confirmed that the person in the picture was his son Shyam Prakash Dwivedi but he is not connected with the Hathras incident in any way. He also told us that Shyam Prakash Dwivedi has two children, who are still very young.
Fact Crescendo contacted Ajay Dixit, Circle Officer, Colonel Ganj Police Station, Allahabad, and was told by him that,
Shyam Prakash Dwivedi was accused in a gang rape case in 2019. A complaint was lodged against them on 16th September 2020 at Colonel Ganj Police Station, due to which we went to their house to arrest them but we did not find him there.
When Fact Crescendo asked a question about Shyam Prakash Dwivedi’s son in relation to Hathras incident, he told us clearly that “Shyam Prakash Dwivedi has two children, one of whom is around 13-year-old daughter and a 4-year-old son, both children, both are quite small. It is incorrect to relate him to this case. We have arrested Shyam Prakash Dwivedi and sent him to jail.
Conclusion: After fact-checking, we have found the above post to be incorrect. The person seen with Modi ji and Yogi ji in the picture is not the father of the accused in the Hathras scandal, but this person is BJP leader Shyam Prakash Dwivedi.
Title:Wrong claims linking BJP leader Shyam Prakash Dwivedi to the Hathras incident is going viral on social forums
Fact Check By: Aavya RayResult: False
