No, UAE President Sheikh Mohamed Didn't Welcome Bageshwar Dham Sarkar at Airport

And neither has the UAE declared a public holiday to welcome the self-styled godman.

Fact-check: A false claim about Bageshwar Dham Sarkar being welcomed by UAE President in Abu Dhabi is going as real.

(Photo: Altered by The Quint)

A video showing Dhirendra Krishna Shastri, also known as Bageshwar Dham Sarkar, being welcomed at Abu Dhabi airport is going viral to claim that he was welcomed by the "Sheikh of Abu Dhabi".

It also stated that because of Shastri's visit, 22 to 26 May has been declared a holiday so that people could attend his event.

An archive can be seen here. 

(Source: Facebook/Screenshot)

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

What's the truth?: The President of United Arab Emirates' (UAE) and ruler of Abu Dhabi, Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, did not welcome Shastri in UAE.

• He was welcomed and invited by a businessman from Abu Dhabi named Dr Bu Abdullah.

How did we find out the truth?: We performed a reverse image search on some of the keyframes of the video on Google and this led us to an Instagram post shared by news agency Indo-Asian News Service (IANS).

• The caption stated that it showed Shastri being welcomed by Dr Bu Abdullah in Abu Dhabi.

• Taking a cue, we search Abdullah's Instagram account and found out that he is a businessman who organised an event for Shastri in Abu Dhabi.

• Abdullah has uploaded the same video as the viral one on his Instagram and X (formerly Twitter) on 24 May.

• Shastri also shared his visit to Abu Dhabi on Instagram he also mentioned Abdullah.

• Further, the UAE President has not posted anything about Shastri's visit, and no official circular declaring a holiday from 22 to 26 May has been released.

• We also compared the two and concluded that they are not the same person.

Comparison between the two

(Source: Altered by The Quint)

We have reached out to Abdullah and he confirmed his identity to The Quint. "It's me in the video but I'm not the president. I'm businessman u can Google me, Dr Bu Abdullah," he said.

Conclusion: A false claim about Bageshwar Dham Sarkar being welcomed by UAE President in Abu Dhabi is going as real.

(Not convinced of a post or information you came across online and want it verified? Send us the details on WhatsApp at 9540511818 , or e-mail it to us at [e-mail] and we'll fact-check it for you. You can also read all our fact-checked stories here.)