Lighthouse Journalism found a picture being widely shared on social media platforms. It was claimed along with the image that it featured Devendra Fadnavis and Eknath Shinde as a karsevak on Babri demolition day. During the investigation we found that the person in the picture along with Devendra Fadnavis is not former Maharashtra chief minister Eknath Shinde, but Nagpur’s senior BJP worker, Bhojraj Dumbe.
Claim:
X user Hindutva Knight shared the picture with the claim.
Other users too are sharing the image with similar claims.
Investigation:
We started the investigation by running a reverse image search on the image.
We found this image on a Marathi news website, Maharashtra Times.
The report stated that Devendra Fadnavis had shared he was in Ayodhya during the Babri Mosque demolition and that there was no Shiv Sena worker there, then.
The story carried the picture but did not name the person alongside Fadnavis as Eknath Shinde.
In the next step of the investigation, we spoke to the media coordinator of former Maharashtra CM Eknath Shinde, Viraj Muley. He informed us that the person in the picture was not Eknath Shinde and that the viral claim was false.
In the next step of the investigation, we connected with the Nagpur office of Devendra Fadnavis. His secretary informed us that the person seen in the picture is Bhojraj Dumbe, a senior BJP worker in Nagpur.
In the next step, we also contacted Bhojraj Dumbe. He said, “The person in the picture and Devendra Fadnavis is me. The picture was clicked in 2002 when I was the Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha (BJYM) Nagpur president and Fadnavis was BJYM Pradesh Mahamantri. We were protesting against the load shedding in the state. Over 1000 young workers were a part of the protest and the picture was clicked when we gheraoed the state electricity office in Gaddigodam area of Nagpur.”
Conclusion: The viral image does not feature former Maharashtra CMs Eknath Shinde and Devendra Fadnavis after the Babri Mosque demolition together. The person seen alongside Fadnavis is senior BJP leader from Nagpur Bhojraj Dumbe, during a protest against load shedding in 2002. The viral claim is false.
