Fact Check: Old picture of Ahmedabad viral in the name of Varanasi

Vishvas News (New Delhi): A post going viral on social media shows a picture of a big pothole in the middle of the road. It is being claimed that it is from Varanasi. Vishvas News investigated and found that the picture is of Ahmedabad from the year 2017. It is falsely passed off as from Varanasi.

Claim

Facebook page The Real India uploaded a picture on July 31, tweeting: ‘World’s first underground cricket stadium ready in Banaras, right in the middle of the road!’

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

Investigation

Vishvas News used Google reverse image tool to know the truth of the viral picture. During the search, we found this picture in many old reports. The oldest image we found was uploaded on the Twitter handle of Aam Aadmi Party leader Sanjay Singh on July 29, 2017. It can be viewed here.

विकास ऊपर से लेकर नीचे तक पहुँच चुका है,अगर आपको दिखाई नही देता तो इसमें मोदी जी का क्या दोष है? pic.twitter.com/qDScnlnyom

— Sanjay Singh AAP (@SanjayAzadSln) July 29, 2017

During the search, we also found this picture posted on July 29th, 2017 on the Twitter handle of Sanjeev Bhatt. The tweet mentioned that the image is of Ahmedabad.

This morning's pictures from the smart city of Ahmedabad. 🙂 pic.twitter.com/VXislkEkZr

— Sanjiv Bhatt (IPS) (@sanjivbhatt) July 29, 2017

Vishvas News contacted Prashant Nema, a senior journalist based in Ahmedabad. He told that the viral picture is an old photo of Ahmedabad. It went viral many times earlier as well.

After this, we contacted Bhairav Jaiswal, photojournalist of Dainik Jagran, Varanasi. He confirmed that the viral picture has nothing to do with Varanasi.

We scanned The Real India Facebook page that shared this viral claim. The page had more than 4.35 lakh followers till we fact checked the post.

Conclusion: Vishvas News investigated and found that the picture is of Ahmedabad from the year 2017. It is falsely passed off as from Varanasi.

Tags

• Fact Check