Photo shows Rahul Gandhi and lawyer, not 'judge who granted bail'

Published on July 25, 2025 at 06:24
4 min read
By Sachin BAGHEL, AFP India

After a court in the northern Indian city of Lucknow granted Rahul Gandhi bail in a defamation case, a photo was shared in social media posts falsely claiming it shows a selfie the presiding judge took with the opposition Congress leader. The person pictured with Gandhi told AFP he is an advocate at the district and civil court, not a judge.

"During the court appearance in Lucknow, the judge first took a selfie with Rahul Gandhi and then granted bail!" reads part of the Hindi-language caption of a photo shared in an X post on July 15, 2025.

"BJP folks are going crazy, filing pointless cases," it adds, referring to the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

The photo surfaced after the Lucknow court granted opposition leader Gandhi bail in a defamation case earlier in the day.

According to The New Indian Express newspaper, the case relates to alleged defamatory remarks against Indian soldiers made during Gandhi's "Bharat Jodo Yatra" ("Unite India March") in 2022 (archived here and here).

The report said the complainant alleged that Gandhi repeatedly stated, in a derogatory manner, that the Chinese army was "thrashing" Indian soldiers in border clashes in Arunachal Pradesh in December 2022.

Screenshot of the false X post taken on July 20, 2025, with a red X added by AFP

The photo was also shared on Facebook here and here and in X posts here and here by users who claimed it either showed the charges against Gandhi were frivolous or that the judge was not impartial.

"The star, Rahul ji, has also been granted bail by the honourable judge," read a comment on one of the posts.

Another said: "The judge must be hoping that when a Congress government is formed in the future, they’ll show this very selfie to secure a Rajya Sabha seat."

But the photo in fact shows a selfie taken by a lawyer, not a judge.

'I am not a judge'

Local media reported that bail was granted to Gandhi by Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate Alok Verma (archived link).

The person pictured in the falsely shared image, however, does not match an official photo of the magistrate on the court's website (archived link).

Screenshot comparison of the false post (left) and a photo of the presiding magistrate on the court's website (right)

A reverse image search on Google led to an X post from July 15 that said the person in the falsely shared photo was in fact a practising advocate in Lucknow called Syed Mahmood Hasan (archived link).

“I am not a judge, but an advocate at the district and civil court in Lucknow. I am registered as a member of the Bar Association of Lucknow," Hasan told AFP on July 20.

"I was not involved in the case at all. I was there for work and saw Rahul Gandhi in court. I took a selfie with him and shared the photo in a closed WhatsApp group but someone leaked it from there." he added

Hasan is listed as an active member of the Lucknow Bar Association (archived link).

AFP has previously debunked other false claims related to Gandhi, who is a frequent target of misinformation.

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