Durgesh and Sanjay

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About

Durgesh refers to a set of viral Instagram posts in which a man identified as Sanjay Kapoor claims to be repeatedly catfished by an older man named Durgesh. After screenshots began widely circulating in late October 2017, a man came forward on Facebook claiming they the photographs were actually of a son and his disabled father.

Origin

On October 26th, 2017, Instagram user @sanjayyy_kapoor^[1] posted a series of photographs captioned with claims that he had been catfished by an older man named Durgesh several times, leading him to assault the man (shown below).

Spread

That day, Twitter user @Tazznemo^[5] posted screenshots of the posts along with the message "My favourite Instagram account." Within four days, the tweet gathered more than 258,800 likes and 105,500 retweets. Meanwhile, Imgur^[10] user fatherofpenguinmafia reposted the screenshots, which accumulated upwards of 213800 views and 5,800 points over the next 72 hours. On October 27th, Twitter user @WidefaceViki^[6] posted a Who's That Pokemon photoshop featuring Sanjay and Durgesh (shown below).

That day, Redditor mrdoddsi submitted the Instagram screenshots to /r/indianpeoplefacebook,^[11] where they received upwards of 4,200 points (95% upvoted) and 140 comments over the next three days. On October 28th, 2017, Facebook user Sudhanshu Pandey published a post claiming that the photos were of his brother Durgesh with his 51-year-old disabled father Sanjay.

Sudhanshu Pandey added 16 new photos -with Ankur Chaturvedi and 45 others October 28 at 1:03pm e Frnds,,, I have something very important to share,, plzzz poora padhna., Aajkal meme market me ek Naya material aaya he, uska naam he Durgesh,,, sab log hadd se aage troll Kar rhe he use,,, Uski pics pe bahut bhadde comments ho rhe he,,, ye Jo aap pics dekh rhe he, ye sab international level pe viral hui he,, uske captions ki wajah se and log bahut share bhi Kar chuke he,,, Now it's time to hear the truth Kaun he Durgesh????? Ans:- Mera Bhai he wo And ye sab Jo kuch bhi ho raha he usme uska koi haath nahi he Uske kisi enemy me Instagram par "Sanjay Kapoor " name se ek parody account banaya and ye sab post kiya,, it went viral in minutes, Mere Bhai ki Kya galti thi???? Bas itna ki use apna insta account private nahi kiya Tha,,, and that scum used his innocence for his memes bahut We don't know who's that bastard behind all this but whoever it is, galat kiya he tune And itna hi nahi us kamine ne Durgesh ke papa mtlb mere uncle Tak ko nahi choda and un par bhi memes bane ja rhe he C'mon yr., no one knows what things he has gone through 2 brain surgeries,,, his body is too weak for all this b-------,,, Ek physically disabled 50 yr father ka tum aise majak nahi uda sakte yr Durgesh is his only child,,, just think of it , Ye sab dekhkar unpar Kya beet rahi hogi Mera Bhai bahut hi simple sa ladka he,,, and I m proud of him 10 saal ke age se hi bahut si responsibilities he uske upar., and he is working too hard for just his parents, And aisa ladka ve sab deserve nahi karta And if someone thinks ke ye sab karke wo mere Bhai ko weak bana raha he,,, to Ghar ja tu, hum sab uske saath he,,, and he is very strong for all this A request to all my frndss ,,, plzzz share as much as u can,,

The following day, the original Instagram screenshots were posted in a thread on 4chan's /int/ board.^[4] Meanwhile, /r/IndianPeopleFacebook^[7] moderator atticus94 submitted a post ordering users to "stop using the Durgesh meme" in light of Sudhanshu Pandey's Facebook post. Also on October 29th, Redditor noggerfaggit posted a photoshopped series of Scooby Doo screencaptures featuring Durgesh and Sanjay to /r/dankmemes^[8] (shown below). On October 30th, 2017, the internet news site Storypick^[9] published an article titled "Viral ‘Durgesh’ Meme Is Actually A 16 YO Boy And His Disabled Father."