Fact Check: Shirdi Sai Trust did not donate Rs 35 cr towards Haj
Shirdi, the abode of Sai Baba, is considered a sacred pilgrim centre by the Hindus. Shirdi is a city in Maharashtra where Sai Baba spent 60 years of his life till he attained salvation in 1918.
Shirdi, the abode of Sai Baba, is considered a sacred pilgrim centre by the Hindus. Shirdi is a city in Maharashtra where Sai Baba spent 60 years of his life till he attained salvation in 1918.
A message in Hindi with a screenshot attached is in circulation claiming that the Shirdi Sai Baba Trust had donated 35 crore rupees from the money offered by the Hindu Devotees to a Muslim temple.
The screenshot shared with the viral message shows a Google search with the keywords “Shirdi trust donated any amount to hajj package”, leading to a tweet claiming that Shirdi Sai Trust donates 35Cr to Haj.
The claim in Hindi goes as “शिरडी साईं मंदिर ट्रस्ट ने मुस्लिमों को हज करने के लिए दिए ₹350000000 की सौगात जो हमारे हिंदू भाई शिरडी साईं मंदिर में जाकर दान करते हैं आज देखें वही हमारा दान का पैसा मुस्लिमों के हज यात्रा के लिए दिया जा रहा है हे मेरे हिंदू भाइयों अभी भी वक्त है आप खोलो और इन सब तंत्रों को समझो. कृपया साईं मंदिर मैं कोई भी पैसा ना चढ़ाएं”
When translated to English, it claims: “* Shirdi Sai Mandir Trust offered₹ 350000000 donated by our Hindu brothers in the temple at Shirdi temple, to Muslims towards Haj. O my Hindu brothers, there is still time to open your eyes and understand all this. *Please don't offer any money at Sai temple*”
Fact Check:
The claim is false. Shirdi Sai Trust did not donate any money towards the Haj pilgrimage.
When we performed a keyword search about the donations made by the Shirdi Sai Trust, we found a video shared by ABP news YouTube channel in March 2020, which states that the Shirdi Sai Trust has announced a donation of Rs 51 crore to the Maharashtra government to fight the COVID epidemic.
An article in The Hindu also reported donation of 51 crore rupees to the Maharashtra state government.
Another report in the Times of India states that the Shirdi Sai Trust donated 35.28 crore rupees to the Indira Gandhi Government Medical College and Hospital (IGMCH) in 2018 for procuring MI, CAT scan, Digital subtraction Angiography (DSA) machines, and other equipment.
No news article about the 35 crore rupees donation to Haj was found anywhere.
Shirdi Sai Trust’s website also did not carry any such report.
This claim was also debunked by Youturn, a fact-check organization, which contacted the Saibaba Sansthan Trust, Shirdi. The Trust refuted these claims.
Hence, the claim that the Shirdi Sai Trust made donations to the Haj committee is false. No such donations were made by the Shirdi Sai Trust.