Man seen with Rahul Gandhi in viral selfie is not the judge who granted him bail but a lawyer

On July 15, 2025, a special magistrate court for members of Parliament (MPs) and Legislative Assemblies (MLAs) in Lucknow granted bail to Congress leader and MP Rahul Gandhi in a 2022 defamation case. Soon after this, a photo of him with a man in a black robe and white shirt with a collar—worn by those associated with the legal fraternity—began circulating on social media. The image was shared with claims that the judge who granted Gandhi bail was taking a selfie with him. While some raised concerns about fairness and whether judges should endorse politicians or fraternise with them, others (supporting the Congress) claimed that the judge took a selfie with Gandhi because he was convinced of his innocence.

Gandhi was booked for his comments about the Indian army during the Bharat Jodo Yatra in 2022 that were allegedly derogatory. After missing the last five hearings in the case, he surrendered in the court of the Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate, Alok Verma, who approved his bail. The Congress MP was also told to furnish two personal bail bonds of Rs 20,000 each and provide two sureties of the same amount for being absent in previous hearings.

Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) IT cell head, Amit Malviya, who has spread misinformation on several occasions in the past, was among those who shared the image on social media, claiming the man in black robes seen in the image was a judge. In his post on X, Malviya wrote, “This is the judge who is supposed to be hearing the case against Rahul Gandhi for insulting our Army and brave soldiers. He should immediately recuse himself.” Malviya later deleted his post.

National media panellist of the Congress, Surendra Rajput (@ssrajputINC), also posted the same image with a caption in Hindi that translates to: “This lone selfie of Shri Rahul Gandhi @RahulGandhi is enough to answer the countless allegations against him. Even the judge would only take a selfie if he truly believed in Rahul Ji’s innocence.” (Archive)

However, Rajput later updated the caption and removed the word “Judge”.

Several other X users such as @ravibhadoria, @MrSinha_, @JaipurDialogues, @arvindgunasekar, @ActivistSandeep, Congress spokesperson @priyanka81_INC, advocate and former AICC member @ashokbasoya, Congress Amroha district social media chairman @Afsarali190, journalist @arvindchotia, Congress UP state co-ordinator @akram_premiar, @AvkushSingh (who has often amplified pro-BJP content on X), were among those who posted the aforementioned image saying that it shows Gandhi with the judge who granted him bail in the defamation case. We also noticed that journalist Rohini Singh had reshared one of these posts.

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Fact Check

The same day, we found a post with the same image shared by X user @Delhiite_  claiming that the individual in the image with Gandhi is an advocate, not a judge, and that his name is Syed Mahmood Hasan.

He is a lawyer/Advocate not a Judge.
His name is Syed Mahmood Hasan. pic.twitter.com/JYQQoMjdX3

— زماں (@Delhiite_) July 15, 2025

We then did a Google search for Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate Alok Verma, who was the judge in the MP/MLA  special magistrate court in Lucknow that granted the Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha bail. We found his details and image on the Allahabad High Court’s website. As is clear from the screenshot of the web page attached below, Justice Verma is not the man seen in the viral photo with Gandhi.

Taking a cue from @Delhiite_’s post, we looked for a Syed Mahmood Hasan to verify whether he was the one in the photo with Gandhi.

We found Hasan’s X account, where his bio reads: “Syed Mahmood Hasan (Advocate), civil court, Lucknow high court, Lucknow bench, Lucknow”. However, the last post by Hasan on X was from May 25, 2020, wishing his followers for Eid.. The post also included a screenshot where he had shared his contact information.

Alt News reached out to Hasan, who confirmed that he was no judge but an advocate.

We also verified that the number we called was actually Hasan’s by double-checking his contact information on his advocate profile on the website soolegal.com. The last four digits of his contact number on the website matched the number we contacted.

Hasan’s pictures on his X profile also match the man seen with Rahul Gandhi in the viral image.

Additionally, if he were a judge, then there would be a record of judgments he passed. However, all records found under Syed Mahmood Hasan pointed to him being an advocate/lawyer.

We also came across a Facebook post made by Hasan where he clarified that he is not a judge, but an advocate.

Thus, claims that LoP Rahul Gandhi clicked a selfie with a judge are completely false. The man in the viral image is Syed Mahmood Hasan, an advocate.