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| - Fact Check: Old, unrelated photos of Hindu idols FALSELY linked to Sambhal mosque survey
Three of the photos show idols recovered in Karnataka in February, while the Sudarshan Chakra, seen in the fourth photo, is listed on an online shopping site.
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India Today Fact Check
The photos have no links to Sambhal. Three of the photos show idols recovered in Karnataka in February. The Sudarshan Chakra seen in the fourth photo is listed on an online shopping site.
Four photos of idols of Hindu Gods and a religious artefact are making the rounds on social media. Those sharing these photos claim these idols were found during the survey of the Shahi Jama Masjid in Uttar Pradesh’s Sambhal.
A survey was initiated on November 19 following a petition filed by Supreme Court lawyer Vishnu Shankar Jain who claimed a temple existed earlier at the site of the mosque. On November 24, violence broke out in Sambhal, killing four when the Mughal-era mosque was surveyed for the second time.
Sharing the photos of the idols, one person wrote on Facebook, “1500 AD Vishnu Murti statue, Sudarshana Chakra, Hindu symbols found in Sambhal Masjid survey. Every Hindu share and save Hinduism.” Its archive can be seen here.
India Today Fact Check found that the viral photos have no links to Sambhal. Three of the photos show idols recovered in Karnataka in February, while the Sudarshan Chakra, seen in the fourth photo, is listed on an online shopping site.
Our Probe
Reverse searching the photos led us to an NDTV report from February 7 that said a centuries-old Vishnu idol and a Shivling were found near the Telangana-Karnataka border from the Krishna riverbed.
These idols were recovered during the construction of a bridge in Raichur, Karnataka, in February. News reports added that these idols could date back a thousand years and were now in the possession of the Archaeological Survey of India. A TV9 Kannada report dated February 6 contained photos of these idols shot from different angles. All three photos of the idols featured in the viral collage are present in this report.
We then reverse-searched the circular artefact and found it on the Indiamart shopping website. This product, listed as Brass Sudarshanachakra Kalasham, is being sold online. The seller is Kolcharam Art Creations, a company based in Nagole, Telangana.
Sambhal survey report awaited
Anoop Sharma, India Today’s correspondent from Sambhal, stated that the idols and artefacts had nothing to do with Sambhal, adding that the survey report has not yet been submitted to the court.
We also reached out to Mashhoor Ali Khan, secretary of the Sambhal mosque. He told India Today Fact Check that no such idols are present in the mosque, ruling out the question of them being found in the survey.
It is noteworthy that the Sambhal Advocates Commissioner who surveyed the Shahi Jama Masjid has requested a 15-day extension for submitting the survey report on the grounds of health issues. The court has, however, not passed any order and fixed January 8 as the next date of hearing, due to the Supreme Court’s stay on the trial court proceedings in the Sambhal mosque case.
It is thus clear that at the time of writing this report, no Hindu idols had been found at the Sambhal mosque.
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