This photo does not show Supriya Sule reciting Quran prayers in a Sahitya Sammelan event in Maharashtra - FACTLY
Sai Krishna Muthyanolla
December 9, 2021
A photo is being shared on social media claiming it as visuals of National Congress Party (NCP) leader Supriya Sule offering Quran prayers at the inauguration of a Sahitya Sammelan event in Maharashtra. Sharing the photo, this post claims that the Maharashtra Government had started a new practice of inaugurating any cultural event with Quran prayer, which earlier used to be done with the Saraswathi prayer. Let’s verify the claim made in the post.
Claim: Photo of Supriya Sule offering Quran prayers before inaugurating a Sahitya Sammelan event in Maharashtra.
Fact: This photo was shot recently when NCP leader Supriya Sule attended the wedding ceremony of Sameer Shamim Khan, son of her party colleague Shamim Khan. This photo was not taken during the Sahitya Sammelan event in Maharashtra. Supriya Sule did not attend the recent Sahitya Sammelan event held in Nashik, Maharashtra. Hence, the claim made in the post is FALSE.
On reverse image search of the photo shared in the post, a similar visual was found in a live Facebook video shared by NCP leader Supriya Sule on 04 December 2021.  The visuals of this video confirm that Supriya Sule was recording a Muslim wedding ceremony. Supriya Sule shared multiple images of this wedding ceremony on her Facebook and Instagram pages greeting the couple, “Heartiest Congratulations Sameer Shamim Khan and Family”.
When we searched for more sources using this information, a video with similar visuals was found to be published by the ‘Aapka Prahar Times’ news channel on 07 December 2021. This news channel reported it as the visuals from NCP leader Shamim Khan’s son Sameer Shamim Khan’s wedding ceremony. According to this news report, Supriya Sule attended Sameer Shamim Khan’s wedding ceremony on 04 December 2021 and greeted Shamim Khan’s family. As part of the event, Supriya Sule reportedly had offered dua along with the other members in the Sameer Shamim Khan’s wedding ceremony.
On 03 December 2021, the three-day festival of Akhil Bharatiya Marathi Sahithya Sammelan began in Nashik, Maharashtra. The inaugural proceedings of this ceremony can be seen here and here. It is nowhere found that Quran prayers were recited in this ceremony. Also, it has not been reported that NCP leader Supriya Sule attended this event held in Nashik. The Maharashtra government did not announce any such decision of reciting Quran prayers at the inauguration of every cultural event. If the Maharashtra government had announced any such decision, several news organizations would have published articles reporting this information. But we could not find a single news article reporting this information.
To sum it up, this photo does not show Supriya Sule reciting Quran prayers in a Sahitya Sammelan event in Maharashtra.