Fake Yakub execution pictures circulate on WhatsApp; police deny authenticity

Even as the burial of 1993 Mumbai serial bomb blasts accused Yakub Memon was underway, unknown mischievous elements started circulating stills of an execution scene from a Hindi movie, trying to pass them off as photos of Memon’s execution.

The supposed photos of the hanging were actually stills from a 2013 Ram Gopal Varma movie titled ‘The Attacks of 26/11’, based on the November 2008 attacks. The unknown elements had taken two stills of a scene, where 26/11 terrorist Ajmal Kasab is shown to be hanged, and tried to pass them off as CCTV footage of the execution.

A third photograph, supposedly of Memon’s dead body, was also circulated, and the police denied its authenticity as well.

“Two supposed CCTV stills of Yakub Memon’s hanging and one more photograph are being circulated on WhatsApp. These photos are not authentic. We appeal to the people to not be taken in and to refrain from circulating them,” said Mumbai Police spokesperson DCP Dhananjay Kulkarni.