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.
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(Source: Facebook/Screenshot)
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.
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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.
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