A post accompanying a screenshot of a purported news report featuring a man standing next to a structure that appears to be a Dargah is going viral on social media (here, & here). The post claims that the Waqf board has acquired the land of a farmer named Arjunappa in Karnataka’s Yadgir district, Shabaad village, by asserting that the land belongs to the Dargah. We also received a request on our WhatsApp tip line (+91 92470 52470) to check the authenticity of this claim. Through this article, let’s fact-check the claim made in the post.
Claim: The Waqf board has acquired the land of a farmer named Arjunappa in Shabaad village, Yadgir district, Karnataka, by asserting that the land belongs to a Dargah, picture of that Dargah.
Fact: There are no reports about the Waqf board acquiring the land of a farmer named Arjunappa in Shabaad village, Yadgir district, Karnataka, by asserting that the land belongs to a Dargah. Moreover, there is no village named Shabaad in Karnataka’s Yadgir district. The picture featured in the viral post shows the Dargah of Baba Ashique Shah and Mashooque Shah Rahmatullh Alaih in Nagpur, Maharashtra. Hence the claim made in the post is FALSE.
To verify the authenticity of the viral claim, we conducted a relevant keyword search but did not find any reports about the Waqf board acquiring the land of a farmer named Arjunappa in Shabaad village, Yadgir district, Karnataka, by asserting that the land belongs to a Dargah. Moreover, we did not find any village named Shabaad on the official Yadgir district portal or in the Yadgir district 2011 census data (here and here).
Then, we conducted a Google reverse image search on the picture featured in the viral post. This search led us to a similar picture uploaded on a Facebook page named ‘Dargah Baba Ashique Shah Mashooque Shah Rahmatullh Alaih Isasani Tekdi.’ According to the description of this page, it posts news and updates about the Dargah of Baba Ashique Shah and Mashooque Shah Rahmatullh Alaih in Nagpur, Maharashtra. Taking a cue from this, we then tried to locate this Dargah on Google Maps. We found a picture very similar to the one in the viral post, with the only difference being that it does not feature a man standing next to the Dargah. Below is a comparison of the photo featured in the viral post with the photo from Google Maps.
Furthermore, we contacted the authorities of the Dargah of Baba Ashique Shah in Nagpur, Maharashtra, using the contact number provided on their Facebook page. The Dargah authorities confirmed that the structure featured in the viral post is indeed their Dargah. They also shared a recent photo of the Dargah taken from a similar angle. Below is the recent picture of the Dargah of Baba Ashique Shah and Mashooque Shah Rahmatullh Alaih in Nagpur, Maharashtra. From all this information, it is clear that the picture featured in the viral post shows the Dargah of Baba Ashique Shah and Mashooque Shah Rahmatullh Alaih in Nagpur, Maharashtra.
To sum up, there are no reports about the Waqf board acquiring the land of a farmer named Arjunappa in Shabaad village, Yadagir district, Karnataka. This viral post features the Dargah of Baba Ashique Shah Mashooque Shah Rahmatullh Alaih in Nagpur, Maharashtra.
