A number of speculations related to deadly riots in Bengaluru on the night of August 11 are doing rounds on social media enraged over a derogatory Facebook post by Congress MLA Akhanda Srinivasa Murthy's nephew T Naveen Kumar about Prophet Mohammed.

Meanwhile, a section of social media users started sharing some screenshots claiming that Naveen's derogatory post was in response to another derogatory post about Hindu Gods. Dismissing this claim, a number of reports were published stating that this is a false claim and the viral screenshots are morphed. 

It all started when a number of social media users started sharing screenshots of a Facebook post claiming Naveen’s post was a reaction to a derogatory post shared by a Muslim man, Adyar Basheer, targeting Hindu gods and Prime Minister Modi. 

One such screenshot was posted by a Twitter user named Sanjay Gandhi saying, " What caused #BangaloreViolence ? A Muslim, wrote derogatory post on Hindu Goddess Lakshmi. When a Hindu, wrote a post on #prophet_muhammad, intolerant Muslim terrorists started #BangloreRiots."

A screenshot was shared on Facebook by a user Om Prakash Singh with a caption, "So this is what happened in Bangalore. A peaceful person posted a picture of Modi and goddess Laxmi with an erotica poem, to which one intolerant Hindu replied with a meme on their Perfect Man, and rest is history."

These posts suggest that Basheer Adyar had uploaded a derogatory post on Facebook insulting the Hindu goddess Lakshmi and also brought PM Narendra Modi into it. According to these posts, Naveen responded to him with a ‘meme’ on Muhammed, the prophet of Islam, members of the Muslim community cropped out Basheer’s post and instigated the violence.

However, Basheer’s post is two years old and had created quite a stir back then. Below is a post on Facebook page ‘I Support Anant Kumar Hegde’ on which screenshot of Basheer's post was shared on June 16, 2018.

In our investigation, we found that Naveen's remark was not in response to Basheer's post as it no longer exists on Facebook. Therefore, these screenshots were morphed to add  Naveen's post in the comment section of a screenshot of Basheer’s old post to give a false impression.

However, these media reports did not mention that Naveen's post was indeed in response to a Facebook post by SDPI leader Fairoz Pasha, and hence creating a perception that Naveen's controversial post was not in response to any other post. 

Reportedly, Fairoz shared a local TV channel’s report of remarks purportedly made in July by BJP MLA Murugesh Nirani, questioning the morality of Hindu gods. Nirani had at the time claimed that the message was posted inadvertently from his phone by his personal assistant. An officer said Fairoz has also been arrested.

Indian Express quoted a senior police official saying,"preliminary investigations revealed Naveen’s post on the evening of August 11 was a reaction to another post by SDPI leader Fairoz Pasha, who shared a local TV channel’s report of remarks purportedly made in July by BJP MLA Murugesh Nirani, questioning the morality of Hindu gods."

On August 11, Fairoz shared a 9-minute clip of a local news channel named B TV however, it is not confirmed that Naveen's post was in response to this post or not. 

In conclusion, Naveen Kumar's derogatory post about Prophet Mohammed was in response to another post by SDPI leader Fairoz Pasha, who shared a local TV channel’s report of remarks purportedly made in July by BJP MLA Murugesh Nirani, questioning the morality of Hindu gods.