A picture of a mosque in the middle of a busy cross-junction in Madhya Pradesh is being falsely shared as Mumbai with captions challenging Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray to demolish it.
BOOM found that the mosque in the picture is located in Katra Bazaara (market) of Sagar, Madhya Pradesh and not in Mumbai's Bandra suburb as claimed in the viral posts.
The image is viral in the backdrop of Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) bulldozing parts of the office of Bollywood actor Kangana Ranaut's production house located on Mumbai's Nargis Dutt Road on September 9, 2020. BMC officials brought down parts of the bungalow from which Manikarnika Films Private Limited operated alleging it to be illegal construction.
BMC's action comes at a time when the actor is engaged in a row with the Maharashtra CM and his party over the death of actor Sushant Singh Rajput and her controversial statement likening Mumbai to Pakistan-occupied-Kashmir. Read more about it here.
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The viral image shows a mosque right in the middle of a busy cross junction. A Hindi caption with the post translates to 'This mosque is situated right in the middle of a road in Mumbai's Bandra. Can Uddhav dare to demolish it?'. Click here for archive.
(Hindi: यह मस्जिद मुंबई के बांद्रा मे बीच रोड पे बनी है | क्या उद्धव मे दम है इसे तोड़ने की | हीजड़े मेरी पोस्ट से दूर रहे |)
Click here for archive of Twitter post shared below.
The picture is viral from several Twitter handles with similar false claims.
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Fact Check
BOOM did a reverse image search on the viral image and found a tweet from August 8 this year wherein the same image had been shared with a sarcastic comment aimed at Muslims. The replies on the tweet mentioned that the mosque was located in Sagar, Madhya Pradesh.
Taking cue from the replies, BOOM did a keyword search with 'Masjid, Katra Bazar, Sagar, Madhya Pradesh', and found a similar image in the name of Jama Masjid in Sagar's Katra Bazar listed on Just Dial.
However, since the image on Just Dial was a side view of the mosque and not an aerial view like the viral image, we decided to track the mosque on Google Maps.
We found the following image of the mosque on Google Streetview.
A satellite view of the Sadar Jama Masjid on Google Maps shows a clear view of the a mosque located on the four junction in Katra Bazar, Sagar, MP.
BOOM also found the contact number of Shri Sainath Cloth Store located near the mosque and contacted the shopkeeper who confirmed that Jama Masjid was located in Sadar Bazar.
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