An old picture of a religious event in Russia is viral with misleading claims linked to coronavirus. This picture has nothing related to the corona and is a much older picture than the first case of corona infection in the world.
New Delhi (Vishvas Team). A viral picture on social media claims the God has been quarantined due to coronavirus season. We can see the idols lay on the bed and few men standing around them.
Vishvas News received this image on fact checking chatbot (+91 95992 99372). This claim has turned out to be misleading in Vishvas News investigation. The old picture of a religious event in Russia is linked with coronavirus.
Claim
This picture and the claims related to it are being shared on Facebook, Twitter and WhatsApp. A Facebook user named Vikram Kumar posted this claim. The screenshot of this post can be seen below:
The archived link to this post can be viewed by clicking here .
Investigation
Vishvas News searched the image with this claim using the Yandex Image Search Tool. We found many results from similar pictures. One result was exactly the same as this picture.
This search result can be seen in the above screenshot. We found the exact picture posted on July 27 last year on vk.com, a social media platform in Russia. This user named Vishnu-Rata-Das Manakhov posted a video last year. That post can be viewed here .
The viral picture and the contents in the video are similar.
The caption of this video was written in Russian. We found its English translation, Darshan of Sri Pancha-Tattva on vacation (2019-07-26 20-20) on Google Translate. The first case of corona infection in the world was revealed in December 2019. We could conclude that the picture has nothing in relation with coronavirus.
We also found Vishnu-Rata-Das Manakhov’s profile on Facebook. From that profile we came to know that he is associated with ISKCON. We contacted New Delhi ISKCON National Communications Director Vrijendranandan Das. He clarified that this viral claim is entirely false. He connected us with Sadhu Priya Das, Temple President of ISKCON Moscow, Russia. He informed us that this picture is of Panch Tattva Pran Pratishthan , a religious event happened in Russia last year. Das appealed that people should not share this picture with the wrong claim.
We did social scanning of the profile of Facebook user Vikram Kumar who shared this post. According to the information given on his profile, the user is a resident of Sitamarhi, Bihar.
Conclusion: An old picture of a religious event in Russia is viral with misleading claims linked to coronavirus. This picture has nothing related to the corona and is a much older picture than the first case of corona infection in the world.
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