A video has recently surfaced online showing a man defacing the murals of Lord Hanuman with black paint and a stick at a temple in Gujarat. The viral video is associated with the controversy of murals depicting Lord Hanuman bowing down to Sahajanand Swami at the Hanuman temple at Salangpur in the Botad district of Gujarat. Social media users are fiercely sharing this video and claiming that the man shown in the viral video is Muslim.
A user named Amisha Bano shared this video and wrote: “Look at the statue of our adorable Lord Shri Hanuman ji, how this Abdul is destroying”.(English Translation)
Re-quoting this video, another user by the name of Bharat says:”Scared Muslim in India”. (English Translation)
Fact-Check
To verify the claims related to the above viral video, the DFRAC team converted the viral video into some Keyframes and reverse-searched it on Google. Meanwhile, the team found a video of breaking news uploaded on the YouTube Channel of ZEE 24 Kalak with the title: “BREAKING: Irked devotee vandalizes murals showing Hanuman Ji as bhakt of Sahjanand Swami”.
It clearly indicates that the Murals of Lord Hanuman have been defaced by a devotee, not by a Muslim.
Moreover, the team discovered some news articles related to the above viral video.
News Website Jago News published a news article on Sept 2, 2023. The headline of the news article reads: “Devotee axed Salangpur murals: “A Sanat devotee broke barricades and tried to destroy murals, painted black, police nabbed”.
According to this news article, “A devotee of Sanat today tried to destroy the controversial murals in the vacant site of the foundation of the King of Salangpur statue in Salangpur by wielding an axe. Also, these murals were painted over with black paint. Police have arrested the person who broke the barricades and damaged the statue. The person has been identified as a resident of Charanki village in Gahda taluk and his name has been revealed as Harshad Gahvi.
Another news website ‘The Wire’ published news 13 hours ago with the headline: “Gujarat: Temple Murals Have Brought Out the Swaminarayan vs Sanatan Dharma Tensions”.
In this news, The Wire mentioned “In the video, which has since gone viral, Harshad Gadhvi was seen rubbing ink on the murals and attacking them with an axe before being overpowered by police”.
Conclusion
It is clear from DFRAC ‘s Fact-Check that the man shown in the viral video defacing murals of Lord Hanuman with black paint and sticks is not a Muslim but a devotee named Harshad Gahvi. Hence, the claim of social media users is false.
