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Claim
Photo of a letter written by Bageshwar Dham Chief Dhirendra Shastri predicting the Mahakumbh stampede.
Such posts can be seen here and here.
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Fact
We noticed that the ink in the purported letter did not appear to have been smudged. The extra glossy texture of the photo and the blurred background further indicated that the media was likely AI-generated.
We then checked the viral image on multiple AI detection platforms which concluded that the media was likely generated using artificial intelligence. SightEngine, for instance, calculated a 94% probability of the viral image being AI generated.
Another detection tool, Hive Moderation concluded a 99.8% likelihood that the viral image, purportedly showing a letter written by Dhirendra Shastri ‘predicting’ the tragic stampede in Mahakumbh Mela, contained AI-generated or deepfake content.
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Moreover, we did not find any credible reports stating that Dhirendra Shastri had forecasted the stampede during the religious congregation. The only comments by Shastri on the media was where he urged leaders to refrain from making political statements on the tragedy. He further said, “…We pray to Lord Hanuman to give good sense to those making political statements on the incident. There should be no politics on corpses.” Shastri had earlier said that those who won’t visit the Mahakumbh will be called a traitor.
Newschecker also reached out to Kamal Awasthi, an associate of Dhirendra Shastri who confirmed that the viral claim was false, and added that Shastri was still at Mahakumbh.
Further, we also found the viral claim posted on the X account of ‘@khurpench,’ who in the comment section called it a “satire.”
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Hence, the viral photo purportedly showing Dhirendra Shastri’s letter ‘predicting’ the Mahakumbh stampede was found to be AI generated.
Result: Altered Media
Sources
SightEngine Website
Hive Moderation Website
Telephonic Conversation With Kamal Awasthi, Associate of Dhirendra Shastri
(With inputs from Runjay Kumar from Newschecker Hindi)
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