A viral screenshot circulating on social media platforms like WhatsApp and Reddit has falsely identified a Lucknow politician named Manoj K Srivastava as the father of Advik Srivastava, the 21-year-old student arrested in connection with the suicide of his batchmate at Kalinga Institute of Industrial Technology University (KIIT) University in Odisha.

The archived version of the post can be seen here.

Nepali Student Suicide Case

Prakriti Lamsal, a computer science student hailing from Nepal, took the drastic step after allegedly being harassed by Srivastava, authorities said. In response to the tragic death, a group of Nepalese students at KIIT staged protests, demanding justice for Lamsal, where tensions quickly escalated on campus as students voiced their anger over the incident. The director of the girl’s hostel and associate professor of computer science, have been removed from service for their comments that denigrated students from Nepal, KIIT officials said.

Fact Check

Newschecker first looked up the official Facebook profile of the politician, Manoj K Srivastava, seen in the viral screenshot, where the bio describes him as the founder member and national president of the Lucknow-based Rashtravyapi Janta Party, contradicting a Hindustan Times report, quoting Bhubaneswar deputy commissioner of police Pinak Mishra, who told reporters that the accused is the son of a BJP leader in Lucknow. 

We also found the Instagram profile of Srivastava. None of the accounts have any mention of Advik, nor could we find him in the list of followers or friends, raising our doubts

We then reached out to Srivastava, who clarified to Newschecker that he is not related to Advik. “I am not with the BJP. Neither am I an office-bearer of the party, nor have I contested on a BJP ticket. Also, my son is not of college-going age nor is his name Advik. I have no relation to Odisha,” Srivastava told Newschecker. Srivastava also shared a video statement where he can be heard warning legal action against those spreading misinformation. He has also shared the video on his Youtube and Facebook pages.

We have also reached out to the police regarding the viral claim and will update this copy once we receive a response.

Also Read: Salman Khan Visits Mahakumbh Mela? No, Old Video Viral With False Claim

Conclusion

Viral screenshot falsely claims to show father of accused student in KIIT Nepal student suicide case. 

Sources
Conversation with Manoj K Srivastava
Facebook page, Manoj K Srivastava
(inputs from Runjay Kumar)