Fact Check: ‘Babri Masjid’ in West Bengal - Rahul Gandhi, Owaisi help Humayun Kabir? No, image is AI-generated

Hyderabad: Suspended TMC MLA Humayun Kabir from Bharatpur constituency in Murshidabad district, West Bengal, laid the foundation stone for a mosque named ‘Babri Masjid’ on December 6, the 33rd anniversary of the demolition of the Babri Masjid in Ayodhya.

Kabir’s action is being seen as injecting political heat into an already polarised West Bengal ahead of the Assembly polls due early next year.

Meanwhile, an image circulating on social media shows Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi and AIMIM Asaduddin Owaisi allegedly joining hands with Kabir at the alleged construction site of Babri Masjid.

The image allegedly depicts Owaisi laying bricks on a wall while Rahul Gandhi is seen holding cement-placing equipment, suggesting their direct involvement in construction.

An Instagram user shared the image captioned, “Those who are happy about the Babri Masjid being built in Bengal, send a red heart in the comments, and those who are not happy, send a black heart.”

Fact Check

NewsMeter found that the claim is false, as the image is AI-generated.

Has the media reported on Congress and AIMIM leaders joining hands with Kabir?

We conducted a keyword search but found no credible media reports or the existence of an image showing Rahul and Owaisi at the Murshidabad construction site.

This hinted that the image was artificially created.

Discrepancies in the image

The news reports state that so far, only a foundation stone for a mosque modelled on Ayodhya’s Babri Masjid was laid at Rejinagar in Murshidabad district.

However, the viral image not only shows a mosque-like structure nearing completion but also pillars and walls being erected for surrounding structures, suggesting that the image could be the work of AI.

What does the AI-detection tool state?

We analysed the image using Hive Moderation, which concluded that the image is likely to contain AI-generated or deepfake content with a confidence score of 99.9 per cent.

What tool was used to generate the image?

We uploaded the image to the Google DeepMind SynthId detector and confirmed that the image has been generated using Google AI.

Therefore, we conclude that the image is AI-generated and falsely shows Rahul and Owaisi joining hands with Kabir at the alleged construction site of ‘Babri Masjid’ in West Bengal.