Old Sinkhole Photo From Ahmedabad Shared as Varanasi Image

The photo is claimed to be from Varanasi, the constituency of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

A photo of a sinkhole is being shared on social media with the sarcastic claim: "World's first underground cricket stadium made in Varanasi, and that too, in the middle of the road".

However, The Quint's WebQoof team found out that the photo is not from Prime Minister Narendra Modi's constituency Varanasi, but from Ahmedabad. Moreover, the photo is nearly four years old.

CLAIM

The claim shared in Hindi reads, "विश्व का पहला अंडरग्राउंड क्रिकेट स्टेडियम बनारस में बन कर तैयार, वो भी सड़क के बीचों-बीच."

(Translation: The world's first underground cricket stadium is being built in Varanasi, that too, in the middle of the road.)

The claim has gone massively viral on Facebook and Twitter with the same claim and the archived links shared by users can be found here, here and here.

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WHAT WE FOUND

On conducting a reverse image search using Yandex search engine, we were directed to a tweet by Aam Aadmi Party's Rajya Sabha member Sanjay Singh, who had posted this photo along with a set of images on 29 July 2017.

We also found the same set of images tweeted by former IPS officer Sanjiv Bhatt on the same day and the caption read, "This morning's pictures from the smart city of Ahmedabad."

This morning's pictures from the smart city of Ahmedabad. :) pic.twitter.com/VXislkEkZr

— Sanjiv Bhatt (IPS) (@sanjivbhatt) July 29, 2017

Upon a closer look at the image, we can find the words 'AMC' written in English and 'ભય' in Gujarati, meaning 'danger'. AMC stands for Amdavad Municipal Corporation.

Next, we tried to looked for news reports from Ahmedabad that would point us to the fact that the photo is from Ahmedabad.

Using relevant keywords on YouTube, we looked for news reports and a bulletin by TV9 Gujarati carried visuals that had the board in it with the same text.

Clearly, an old photo is being circulated with the false claim that the sinkhole is in Ahmedabad.

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