Image of a Shivling from West Bengal shared as recently discovered in Gyanvapi mosque.

The image does not show any recently discovered Shivling in the Gyanvapi mosque’s wazukhana in Uttar Pradesh. The image is from Nakhoda mosque in Kolkata.

The Gyanvapi Masjid, adjacent to the Kashi Vishwanath Temple in Varanasi, is embroiled in a legal fight. After the conclusion of three-day Gyanvapi Masjid survey, a lawyer from the Hindu side in the case claimed that a Shivling was found inside a wazukhana or reservoir on the mosque complex.

Amidst this, an image of a five-sided pool with a structure in the middle is widely circulating on social media with the claim that it shows the Shivling that was discovered in the Gyanvapi mosque’s wazukhana.

The caption of the post states, “This is the Shivling which has been found in the Wazukhana of Gyanvapi Masjid today, have a look.’

(Hindi: यही वो शिवलिंग है जो आज ज्ञानवापी मस्जिद के वुजुखाने में मिला है, दर्शन कर लीजिये |)

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Fact Check- 

We started our investigation by running a reverse image search on Google, whose results led us to the Wikipedia page of Nakhoda Mosque in Kolkata, West Bengal. The ‘Nakhoda Musjid’ the largest Mosque in West Bengal and eastern India has a long history.  A small community of Sunni Muslim community from Kutch, Kutchi Memon Jamat, built the mosque as an imitation of the mausoleum of Mughal Emperor Akbar at Sikandra, Agra.

Wikipedia Media viewer mentions that the image shows Ablution pool at the Nakhoda Masjid. The image was uploaded on 1 July 2009. The source of the image mentioned is from flickr.

The image of this ablution pool in Nakhoda mosque is available on West Bengal Tourism’s website. You can see similarities between the viral image and the image available on Bengal government’s website below. This confirms that the viral image shows the ablution pool in Nakhoda mosque.

You can see a video of this ablution pool in Nakhoda Mosque on Google Maps and Flickr.

Conclusion- 

Fact Crescendo found the claim made along with the viral image to be False. The image does not show any recently discovered Shivling in the Gyanvapi mosque’s wazukhana in Uttar Pradesh. The image shows the ablution pool in Nakhoda mosque in Kolkata. The image is present on the internet since 2009.