AI Image Shared to Claim that Muslim Man Dressed as Monk Arrested at Kumbh Mela

The SSP Kumbh confirmed to The Quint that the claim was false.

Fact-Check: The police confirmed to The Quint that no such incident took place. 

(Source: The Quint)

A photo showing a monk or sadhu being apprehended by the police at the Maha Kumbh Mela is going viral on social media.

The claim also states that he is a terrorist named Ayub Khan who "disguised" himself as a priest.

An archive of the post can be found here. 

(Source: Facebook) 

(Archives of similar claims can be found here and here.)

Is the claim true?: No, the claim is false as this image is generated using artificial intelligence (AI).

• We confirmed with the local police, who dismissed the claim as well.

What we found: At first, we ran a keyword search and found news reports about a man named Ayub Ali, who was apprehended by the police at the Kumbh Mela.

• According to a report by the Hindustan Times, police reportedly initiated an investigation into the reasons for a suspicious individual's presence at the Dugdeshwarnath Ashram camp situated in the Mahakumbh Mela region.

• The adherents of Mahant Narasimhanand Giri apprehended the man who allegedly deceived others by stating that his name was Ayush.

• He later disclosed that his name was Ayub Ali.

• Mahant Narasimhanand Giri previously stated that a crowd attacked the Dasna temple a few months back, and threats against the temple had occurred since that time.

• However, the image was not the same as the viral photo.

• We contacted Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Rajesh Dwivedi who confirmed to The Quint that the claim was false and no "millitant" named Ayub Khan, disguised as a monk at Kumbh Mela was arrested.

• We, then, noticed the image closely and found some discrepancies. The hand holding the monk looked strange and the boat carrying people in the background is completely blurred.

Here is a close-up of the image.

(Source: Facebook/Altered by The Quint) 

• These hinted at the image being created using AI. So we ran the image on AI-detection platforms such as Hive Moderation, WasItAI and Sightengine. Following are the results.

• Hive Moderation concluded that the image was 99.4% created using AI.

Here are the results by Hive Moderation.

(Source: Hive Moderation)

• WasItAI stated that it was confident that the image was AI while, Sightengine called it "likely AI" at 67%. Swipe to see the results.

Here is the results by WasItAI. 

Here are the results by Sightengine.

Conclusion: An AI-generated image has gone viral to make the false communal claim that a Muslim man dressed as a monk was arrested from Kumbh mela by the police.

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