Fact Check: Image of a cricket lover holding a placard abusing Aurangzeb is AI-generated
A viral image of a CSK fan holding an anti-Aurangzeb placard is digitally altered. The original message was about CSK skipper MS Dhoni.;
It’s a common sight during sporting events to see the fans holding placards to display their admiration for their icons or trying to grab the attention of their favourite players. During the IPL 2024 match between Chennai Super Kings (CSK) and Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) at Chennai's Chepauk stadium, a MS Dhoni fans held up a yellow placard with a handwritten message that read: "Broke up with my gf (girlfriend) because her name doesn't have seven letters".
Amidst the growing demand seeking the removal of Mughal emperor Aurangzeb’s tomb in Khuldabad of Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar district, a post showing a young man wearing a CSK’s yellow jersey holding a placard with an offensive message against the Mughal ruler and his admirers has gone viral on social media.
The text in the claim is too graphic to be displayed and reproduced verbatim here.
The viral claim link is here and the archive link here.
Here’s the screenshot of the viral post.
Fact Check:
During the investigation, the Telugupost fact check team found that the claim made in the viral post to be digitally altered to give a communal spin to it.
To verify the claim, we ran the viral image through Google Reverse Image Search tool and found a post made on X by a user Rathna Kumar (@MrRathna) on March 23, 2025. In the original post, Kumar thanked CSK captain MS Dhoni. The hashtag in the post indicates the photo was captured during a match between CSK and Mumbai Indians.
A closer look at the viral image revealed that the fingers of the person, who is holding the placard, appear abnormal, so are the team sponsor’s brands such as ‘TVS Eurogrip’ and ‘Astral Pipes’ on the yellow jersey. So, we decided to run through this viral image through an AI detector tool - Hive Moderation and it showed a 99.7 percent probability of the photo being AI-generated.
The investigation revealed that the anti-Aurangzeb placard was digitally altered before making it viral on social media. The CSK fan was not abusing the Mughal emperor with the placard and hence, the claim is false.