Old video of Sai Baba idol being replaced in Delhi shared with false claim

By: Rajeswari Parasa
July 27 2023

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Context

A Twitter user named RK Naidu posted a tweet with a video showing some people trying to remove a Sai Baba idol using tools like crowbars and hammers. The caption of the post, which is in Telugu, when translated to English, says, “Due to the court order that Sai Baba is a Muslim... Idols of our Hindu Goddesses... are destroyed.” 

Another Facebook user Chiranjivi Achari also shared the video with a similar caption. The reel has garnered over 2.6k views at the time of writing. However, this video is not recent and there is no such order by any Indian court.

Sai Baba was a spiritual leader in India, considered a saint, and worshipped by members of both the Hindu and Muslim communities. His birthplace, Shirdi in Maharashtra, is also considered holy. 

In Fact

We did a reverse image search of the video’s keyframes and found that this video is from March 2021. We found a news report by Scroll from then containing multiple still images from this video. According to the ground report, this incident occurred at the Purana Shiv Mandir of in South Delhi on March 25, 2021.

The report noted that the Sai Baba idol was removed under the supervision of one of the temple's committee members Padam Panwar. While a person in the video can be heard saying Sai Baba is Muslim, according to Scroll.in, temple committee issued an official statement that the idol was replaced by a Lord Ganesh idol due to damage. According to a Hindustan Times report, some of the local Sai Baba devotees also filed a police complaint after the video went viral. The Delhi police have also questioned Panwar regarding this incident.

This video from 2021 is circulating again in 2023, with captions in Telugu, claiming that a court declared Sai Baba as Muslim, resulting in temples removing his idols and replacing them with the Hindu gods.

Was there ever a court order labeling Sai Baba as a Muslim?

We did not find any credible reports that said a court in India has declared Sai Baba as Muslim. However, our search led us to reports of a controversy in June 2014, where Dwarakapeeth Shankaracharya Swami Swaroopanand, a religious leader in India, had called Sai Baba Muslim. According to an India Today report, which published a PTI copy, Swaroopanand had called Sai Baba a ‘Muslim fakir’ and added that he could not be worshiped like a Hindu deity.

In September 2014, a Maharashtra-based temple trust approached the Bombay High Court against this statement by Swami Swaroopanand, accusing him of hurting their sentiments, according to an Indian Express report. The Supreme Court refused to intervene and dismissed the Public Interest Litigation (PIL) on the controversial statements made by Swami Swaroopanand. 

According to a report by The Hindu, the apex court said, “What is this Hindu, Muslim? Hinduism is the way of life, and this is not a matter to be managed by this court. If he (Swami Swaroopanand) incites violence, go to civil court."

To further verify if there were any court orders pertaining to Sai Baba’s religion, Logically Facts reached out to Gorakshanath Raybhan Nalge, who is in charge of the Law Department at Shri Sai Baba Sansthan Trust in Shirdi, Maharashtra. Speaking to us, he said that no such court order ever declared Sai Baba’s religion as Muslim. “Fake news keeps circulating on Sai Baba’s religion. Whatever comes to our notice, we file a police complaint.”

The Verdict

An old video from 2021 in south Delhi is circulating on social media, claiming to be that of a recent demolition of a Sai Baba idol. While there are some conflicting statements on why the idol was removed, there is no court order that declared Sai Baba Muslim. Therefore, we mark this claim as false.