Morphed Photo Shared As Delhi CM’s Attacker With AAP Leader Gopal Italia

A photo claiming to show Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader Gopal Italia with the man accused of attacking Delhi Chief Minister Rekha Gupta at her residence, is morphed and fake.

BOOM found that the photo is morphed. In the original visual, Italia is seen with another man and not the alleged attacker.

News outlets including The Indian Express and The Hindu said Delhi CM Gupta was attacked during a meeting for members of the public, on August 20, 2025. The reports identified the accused as Rajeshbhai Khimjibhai Sakriya, 41, from Rajkot, Gujarat, and quoted his mother saying he was upset over the Supreme Court directive on stray dogs. Delhi Police have taken the accused into remand and filed an attempt-to-murder case against him.

The Claim

Several users on X shared the image along with a collage of the alleged attacker, linking him to AAP leader Gopal Italia and, by extension, to party chief Arvind Kejriwal. One user captioned it, claiming, "The Man who slapped Rekha Gupta is a friend of Gopal Italia, MLA from AAP Party & Very Close to Kejriwal."

Click here to view the post and here for an archive.

Delhi BJP MLA Harish Khurana also posted the photo from his verified X account, making the same claim.

What We Found: Viral Photo Is Altered

1. Original Visuals of Gopal Italia: A reverse image search showed that the picture came from a video posted by Italia on August 2, 2025, on his verified Facebook profile. In the video, Italia is seen with a different man, wearing the same clothes and at the same location as in the viral photo.

In a clarification, Italia said the photo was fake and also warned of legal action for making false claims with the viral photo.

2. AI Tools Detect Manipulation: We tested the picture using AI detection tools like Hive Moderation and AI or Not. Both tools found AI manipulations in the viral photograph and concluded that the image contains deepfake content.

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