Viral image of man holding placard against Mughal ruler Aurangzeb at cricket match

Rating Justification

The iVerify Pakistan team investigated this content and determined that it is false.

To reach this conclusion, iVerify Pakistan conducted a reverse image and checked the image using different tools to determine how much it was manipulated.

Posts from Indian users on social media platform X since March 24, 2025, circulated an image of a man holding a placard with offensive remarks against Mughal ruler Aurangzeb during a Chennai Super Kings and Mumbai Indians match in the Indian Premier League (IPL). However, the placard was edited with fake text.

Clashes between Hindus and Muslims in Maharashtra state’s Nagpur city broke out on March 17, during a protest led by Hindu nationalist groups demanding the demolition of the tomb of Aurangzeb. The Vishva Hindu Parishad group wants the tomb replaced with a memorial for rulers from the local Maratha community.

HOW IT STARTED

On March 24, an Indian account named Voice of Hindus posted an image on X of a man wearing a black cat mask over his eyes while holding a placard with an offensive message against Aurangzeb and those partial to him during what looked to be a cricket match.

The caption of the post read, “CSK has the best fan base for a reason.”

CSK refers to the IPL team Chennai Super Kings. The post offered no other details or context for the image such as its date, location or the nature of the event.

The post amassed a million views and 3,600 reshares.

The same image with similar captions was also shared by other users as can be seen here and here.

The image was also found circulating on Instagram.

METHODOLOGY

A fact-check was initiated to determine the veracity of the claim due to its virality and the public’s keen interest in the ongoing Aurangzeb controversy in India as it pertains to larger trends of Islamophobia and discrimination in the country.

The image was first run through different tools to detect any manipulation which presented the following results:

As per Fake Image Detector, the image forensic tool found “no error level detected”.

However, the results of AI image detector Sightengine found the picture to be “likely AI-generated” through generative AI with a probability of 94 per cent.

Similarly, another AI-detecting tool, Hive Moderation, also analysed that the image was manipulated with a probability of 99.8pc, saying that the picture was “likely to contain AI-generated or deepfake content”.

A visual analysis of the image highlighted several flaws suggesting that it was digitally altered. This included the placement of the black cat mask, which resembled an emoticon rather than an actual real mask, as it did not blend naturally with the man’s face. Secondly, the hand placement on the placard appeared unnatural, as the positioning of the fingers did not align with how a person would typically hold a sign.

A reverse image search yielded a March 23 X post by Indian film director Rathna Kumar, showing a picture of himself holding a placard with the following caption: “The man, the myth, the great.”

The caption of the post said, “Thank you Dhoni for making my adulthood awesome. Thank you universe for yet another euphoria.”

The post used the hashtag of “CSKvMI”.

A keyword search for the hashtag and “Dhoni” yielded multiple reports from Indian news outlets, as per which the image was from an IPL match between the Chennai Super Kings and Mumbai Indians at Chennai’s MA Chidambaram Stadium on March 23.

FACT-CHECK STATUS: FALSE

The claim that a picture shows a man holding a placard with offensive remarks against Mughal ruler Aurangzeb and those partial to him is false.

The picture is originally of Indian film director Rathna Kumar from a March 23 IPL cricket match and the caption on the placard he is holding up is digitally edited and replaced with fake text.

Evidence and References

March 23, 2025, Indian film director Rathna Kumar’s X post:
https://perma.cc/B4WZ-VAVU

March 23, 2025, Times of India news report:
https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/sports/cricket/ipl/top-stories/ipl-2025-csk-vs-mi-highlights-noor-ahmads-dream-debut-helps-chennai-super-kings-outclass-mumbai-indians/articleshow/119387724.cms

March 23, 2025, NDTV news report:
https://sports.ndtv.com/ipl-2025/chennai-super-kings-vs-mumbai-indians-live-score-ipl-2025-23-march-csk-vs-mi-live-updates-ipl-cricket-match-today-7991169