Fact Check: Dhoni has not converted to Islam, edited pictures are going viral

Vishvas News (New Delhi). Two pictures of former Indian cricket team captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni are going viral on social media. Social media users are sharing viral pictures of Dhoni where he can be seen wearing an Islamic cap, claiming that the former captain has converted to Islam. This claim turned out to be false in the investigation of Vishvas News. These pictures of Dhoni have been made with the help of editing tools. Social media users are sharing the edited pictures of Dhoni with the wrong claim.

What is going viral

Vishvas News received this claim on its fact checking WhatsApp chatbot (+91 95992 99372) for fact checking. A user shared this viral claim and wanted to know the truth about it. We also found this viral post on Facebook by searching with keywords. Facebook page “Cricket is my drug, Mufa bhai is my dealer” shared this picture and wrote, “Mashallah! Shubhanallah! 3 times ICC trophy winner, best Indian captain till date, inshaallah MS Dhoni has accepted Islam. He has changed his name to MD Danish.”

The archived version of this post can be viewed by clicking here.

Investigation

Two pictures are being shared with the viral claim. In the first picture, Dhoni is wearing a red t-shirt, while in the second picture he is wearing a yellow t-shirt. In both the pictures, he is wearing an Islamic cap on his head. For the purpose of investigation, we decided to examine both the viral pictures separately.

First picture

We used Google reverse image to check the first picture of Dhoni in red t-shirt. We found this image in a 2010 news story on indiatvnews.com. In this picture, he was with his wife Sakshi Dhoni. But in this picture, he was not wearing an Islamic cap on his head.

We also got the same picture from another angle in an NDTV news story. In this picture too, Dhoni was not wearing an Islamic cap.

Second picture

We also used Google reverse image to check Dhoni’s yellow t-shirt picture. We found this picture in a 2020 news story of thenewsminute.com. But in this picture, he was not wearing an Islamic cap on his head.

Now we resorted to keyword search to find whether Dhoni has converted to Islam? We could not find any such news on any authentic news website.

We also shared the viral pictures of Dhoni with Jagran.com Sports In charge Viplov Kumar. He also denied the claim being made with these pictures and told us that these pictures are edited and there is no news of Dhoni’s conversion.

Dhoni hails from Ranchi. Therefore, we also contacted the Ranchi Editor of Dainik Jagran, Pradeep Shukla for confirmation in this regard. He also called this claim fake.

The viral claim was shared by a Facebook page named Cricket is my drug, Mufa bhai is my dealer. This page has been liked by more than 4000 people.

Conclusion: This claim turned out to be false in the investigation of Vishvas News. These pictures of Dhoni have been made with the help of editing tools. Social media users are sharing the edited pictures of Dhoni with the wrong claim. The Digital Sports Incharge of Dainik Jagran and the Editor of Dainik Jagran Ranchi have both confirmed that the post is fake.

Tags

• Dhoni
• Fact Check
• fake news