Uttar Pradesh politician misidentified as KIIT suicide case accused’s father
The Verdict [False]
The man in the viral image is a local politician from Lucknow and is not related to the accused in the KIIT suicide case.
(Trigger Warning: This story contains mentions of suicide. Reader discretion is advised.)
What is the claim?
An image of a man wearing an orange shawl, flanked by three others, has gone viral online, claiming that it shows Manoj Srivastava, father of Advik Srivastava. Advik, a 21-year-old student, has been arrested after his batchmate died by suicide at Kalinga Institute of Industrial Technology University (KIIT) in the Indian state of Odisha's Bhubaneswar.
Several social media users shared an image of a Facebook profile named 'ManojK Srivastava,' stating that Srivastava “leads a BJP junior wing” and is a “famous builder in Lucknow." We found that the claim first surfaced on Reddit, and while the original post has been deleted, a screenshot of the post was shared on other social media platforms.
Archived versions of similar posts can be found here, here, and here.
The university has seen massive protests since February 15, 2025, after the death of a 20-year-old Nepalese student in her hostel room following alleged harassment by a fellow student, Advik Srivastava. Hundreds of students staged protests against the university management, demanding a thorough investigation. Initially, faced with protests, the university decided to send the students back to Nepal, but after an intervention from the Nepal Embassy and the Nepalese Prime Minister, this decision was rescinded. The Odisha government has formed a fact-finding committee, and police have arrested Advik and four others.
However, the man in the now-viral image is not Advik's father and is unrelated to the KIIT suicide case. We found that the man, Manoj Srivastava, is a local politician from Lucknow, a city in the northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh.
What did we find?
A keyword search on Facebook led us to the account mentioned in the viral image, which belongs to a man named Manoj Srivastava . His bio states that he is from Lucknow and is the national president of Bharatiya Kesariya Vahini, a local Hindu outfit. We also found that the same person has another Facebook account (archived here) with the same name. This account’s bio mentions that Srivastava is a social worker and founder of the Uttar Pradesh-based political party Rashtravyapi Janata Party.
A reverse image search of the viral image led us to another Facebook account, 'Manoj Srivastava Fan Club', which posted a similar picture (archived here) on August 10, 2023. The post has been shared without a caption and adds no context to the image.
Further search led us to a video shared by Srivastava on his YouTube channel (archived here) on February 18, 2025. In the video, he clarified that he is not related to the KIIT student accused and his son is not studying at any engineering college in Odisha.
In the video, he can be heard saying, “Recently, in Odisha, a third-year Nepali student at an engineering college in Bhubaneswar was killed, and a boy named Advik Srivastava was arrested as the main accused. Now, social media and news reports are claiming that Advik Srivastava is my son. I want to clarify through social media that none of my sons are studying at an engineering college in Odisha. I have no connection to that boy in any way. I also request the Odisha police to conduct a thorough investigation."
The same video can be found on both his Facebook accounts (archived here and here).
Odisha, Pinak Mishra, saying that the accused is the son of a Bharatiya Janata Party leader in Lucknow. Another report by the same outlet published on the same day states that the accused is the son of a civil engineer from Lucknow. However, none of these reports mentioned the name of the accused's father.
We also contacted the Bhubaneswar Police and Mahendra Kumar Sahu, inspector in charge of the Infocity Police Station in Bhubaneswar, who told us that the viral claim is false. He added that the accused’s father is a civil engineer in Lucknow, not the person seen in the viral image.
The verdict
A politician from Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh, named Manoj Srivastava, has been falsely identified as the father of the accused in the KIIT suicide case.
(This story was originally published by logicallyfacts.com, and republished by english.varthabharati.in as part of the Shakti Collective)
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UP: Azam Khan released from jail after almost two years, supporters gather outside Sitapur jail
Sitapur (PTI): Senior Samajwadi Party leader and former Uttar Pradesh Cabinet minister Azam Khan was on Tuesday released on bail from the Sitapur jail here after nearly two years of incarceration.
Dressed in his trademark white kurta-pyjama paired with a black waistcoat, Khan drove past the jail premises in a private vehicle, not interacting with a host of reporters who tried to get his comment.
Khan's elder son, Adeeb, accompanied by hundreds of party workers, gathered outside the Sitapur district jail since morning to receive him. Several SP leaders, including national secretary and former MLA Anup Gupta, Moradabad MP Ruchi Vira and district president Chatrapati Yadav, were also present outside the jail to welcome Khan.
Speaking to reporters earlier, Adeeb said, "Azam Khan is the hero of the day. I am here with all his supporters to welcome him. I have nothing more to say. Whatever has to be said, my father will say after coming out of jail."
SP leader Ruchi Vira said the party would celebrate this day as "the day of victory of justice".
"We had faith in the judiciary and will continue to have it. No other politician has been harassed as much as he (Azam Khan) has been," she told PTI Videos, ahead of Khan's release.
Meanwhile, the district administration imposed prohibitory orders under Section 163 of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita (BNSS) in Sitapur to "prevent any untoward incident", officials said, even as a large number of supporters managed to reach near the jail with their vehicles, causing traffic congestion.
Sitapur traffic police issued challans to several vehicles that had gathered in violation of restrictions.
"There was chaos and rush despite Section 163 being in force. Vehicles were not allowed to come close to the jail, but they somehow managed to reach there. Action had to be taken to avoid further complications," City Circle Officer Vinayak Bhosle said earlier in the day.
