Hate campaign against Akhilesh Yadav's daughter EXPLAINED: How fact-checkers debunked 'Nigerian friend' lie
Yogi Adityanath himself came down heavily against those spreading baseless lies against the SP chief's daughter as a means of political vendetta
Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath has ordered an FIR against those involved in an online smear campaign targeting Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav's daughter, condemning such attacks on innocents and emphasizing that a daughter is universally cherished. This condemnation follows allegations by Akhilesh Yadav that crores of rupees offered to the Ram Mandir have gone missing, a claim met with a retaliatory, baseless online campaign by what the article terms "pro-Hindutva trolls." These trolls, including users Deepika Rastogi and Bharatkumar Patel who have since deleted their accounts, spread false accusations on social media alleging Yadav's daughter committed a crime in London and was living with a Nigerian friend, a claim debunked by OSINT experts who identified the accompanying image as a stock photo.
Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath has ordered an FIR against those involved in an online smear campaign targeting Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav's daughter, condemning such attacks on innocents and emphasizing that a daughter is universally cherished. This condemnation follows allegations by Akhilesh Yadav that crores of rupees offered to the Ram Mandir have gone missing, a claim met with a retaliatory, baseless online campaign by what the article terms "pro-Hindutva trolls." These trolls, including users Deepika Rastogi and Bharatkumar Patel who have since deleted their accounts, spread false accusations on social media alleging Yadav's daughter committed a crime in London and was living with a Nigerian friend, a claim debunked by OSINT experts who identified the accompanying image as a stock photo.
Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath has ordered an FIR against those involved in an online smear campaign targeting Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav's daughter, condemning such attacks on innocents and emphasizing that a daughter is universally cherished. This condemnation follows allegations by Akhilesh Yadav that crores of rupees offered to the Ram Mandir have gone missing, a claim met with a retaliatory, baseless online campaign by what the article terms "pro-Hindutva trolls." These trolls, including users Deepika Rastogi and Bharatkumar Patel who have since deleted their accounts, spread false accusations on social media alleging Yadav's daughter committed a crime in London and was living with a Nigerian friend, a claim debunked by OSINT experts who identified the accompanying image as a stock photo.
Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath condemned the heinous online campaign targeting SP chief Akhilesh Yadav’s daughter. The CM said such insults targeting innocents would not be tolerated, and immediate action would be taken.
“I was seeing recently that some people were making comments on social media against the daughter of Akhilesh Yadav ji... As soon as it came to my notice, I immediately told the police to register an FIR against it,” the BJP leader said.
"A daughter is a daughter. We have grown up with the values that the daughter in a village is everyone's daughter and the sister in a village is everyone's sister. We have never made any distinction," he added.
Political vendetta by right-wing trolls
The controversy began after Akhilesh Yadav alleged that crores of rupees offered to the Ram Mandir went missing. Slamming the UP government for inaction, Yadav had claimed that the reports of crores missing from Ram Mandir’s offerings were an “utterly shameful situation for the temple trust.”
It was then that pro-Hindutva trolls started targeting Yadav's daughter with a baseless smear campaign. “Akhilesh Yadav is talking about the 7 crore theft in Ram Mandir while his daughter has committed a crime in London,” a verified account called Deepika Rastogi wrote on X. “According to sources, she stole Rs 7 crore from her home and is living with her Muslim Nigerian friend, Lamidi, in Nigeria.”
The same fake claim was replicated on Facebook by one Bharatkumar Patel. Right-wing trolls soon started copying the same claims across social platforms before they were debunked. It was found by OSINT experts that the image being circulated as that of the Nigerian friend of the young woman was a stock image of a model available on the internet.
Both Patel and Rastogi have since deleted their accounts.