Fact-check: Did UP govt organise fruits for cops to break Navratri fast?

Recently, Bhartiya Janata Yuva Morcha UP’s Social Media Head Richa Rajput shared a photo claiming that the Yogi Adityanath government made special arrangements and procured fruit for police personnel observing the Navratri fast. She added that she witnessed such a scene for the first time and this was normally seen during the Ramzan Iftar. Her tweet garnered more than 5,000 likes as of this writing. (Archive link)

योगी सरकार ने नवरात्रि व्रत रखने वाले पुलिस कर्मियों के लिये फलाहार का विशेष प्रबंध किया है।

जीवन में पहली बार ऐसा दृश्य देखा है वर्ना ऐसा आयोजन सिर्फ रोजा इफ्तारी में ही देखा था।। pic.twitter.com/mKfiLFzwxE

— Dr. Richa Rajpoot (@doctorrichabjp) October 12, 2021

The photo was also posted by a page named ‘‘तेज़ रफ़्तार योगी सरकार‘ (Tez Raftaar Yogi Sarkar), gathering over 23,000 likes.

Furthermore, BJP Ghaziabad’s Social Media Head Anand Kalra, Facebook page ‘योगी के योद्धा’ (Yogi Ke Yodha), Neelam Chaturvedi and a handle named @Goldenthrust shared the image with the same claim.

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Fact-check

Alt News performed a reverse image search using Yandex and found the original picture in a tweet posted by Vikas Chandra Tripathi on October 10, 2018. Tripathi has served as the Additional SP in the UP Police Headquarters. He had shared four photos from the event. One of these is the viral image circulating in praise of the Yogi administration.

शारदीय #नवरात्रि के प्रथम शुभ दिन थाना चौक #लखनऊ पर साथी जवानों के साथ फलाहार / लंच कार्यक्रम का आयोजन !!#HappyNavratri@lucknowpolice @Uppolice @upcoprahul @Igrangelucknow @adgzonelucknow pic.twitter.com/wONGeR2h5m

— Vikas Chandra Tripathi🇮🇳 (@vctcop) October 10, 2018

He also wrote that these photos were taken during a lunch/fast-breaking event with his friends from Lucknow on the first day of Navratri.

Vikas Chandra Tripathi was recently suspended from UP police for negligence.

An old picture was shared to laud the UP government. It is noteworthy that we did not find any media reports corroborating that such an initiative was undertaken by the UP government recently.