Old photos falsely shared as Muslim youths desecrating Shivling in UP’s Azamgarh

A photograph of a man with his foot on a shivling is circulating on social media with the claim that he is from the Muslim community. Alt News has received several verification requests for the photograph on its official mobile application.

The photograph has been making rounds on Twitter since 2019 along with a picture of two other men stepping on the idol of the Hindu deity. It was shared with a message calling for “unity of Hindu” and claiming that the men hail from UP’s Azamgarh. Certain abusive words in the tweet have been blurred in the screenshot below.

The two images were also shared on Facebook last year with Bengali text.

Fact-check

Replying to a tweet on August 7, 2019, Ambedkarnagar police wrote that a case was registered against the accused at Ambedkarnagar police station in Jaitpur district.

प्रकरण में थाना जैतपुर जनपद अम्बेडकरनगर में इनके विरूद्ध अभियोग पंजीकृत कर अग्रिम वैधानिक कार्यवाही की जा रही है।

— AMBEDKARNAGAR POLICE (@ambedkarnagrpol) August 7, 2019

A day earlier, Azamgarh police said that the names of the men who placed their foot on the shivling are Neeraj Kumar and Rishi Kumar. They are from Korjha, which comes in Alapur district in Ambedkarnagar. The police wrote that investigation of this case was going on.

साइबर सेल द्वारा जांच के उपरांत पाया गया कि भगवान शिव के मूर्ति के ऊपर पैर रख कर फोटो खिंचवाकर सोशल मीडिया पर वायरल करने वाले लड़के ऋषि कुमार और नीरज कुमार निवासी कोरझहा (हरिजन बस्ती) थाना अलापुर जिला अंबेडकर नगर के रहने वाले हैं। जिनके विरुद्ध अग्रिम कार्यवाही की जा रही है।

— AZAMGARH POLICE (@azamgarhpolice) August 6, 2019

Photographs of an old incident where some youths placed their foot on a shivling is circulating with the false claim that they were Muslims.