By Quaid Najmi

Mumbai, Jul 9 (IANS): An outrageous message on social media -- circulated hours after the demise of legendary actor Dilip Kumar on July 7 -- claiming that he had donated his properties to the Waqf Board has turned out to be a hoax, according to a Cyber Sleuth here on Friday.

The viral message in Hindi, later translated into other languages, was not only shocking and disturbing, but left many wondering about the truth of its purported claims, said Social Media Hoax Slayer (SMHS) Pankaj Jain.

"Yusuf Khan alias Dilip Kumar has left, pretended to be a Hindu and ate from them, but after death donated his property worth Rs 98 crore to the Waqf Board, all are jihadis," read the post that spread like wildfire.

"I was barged with calls and messages to verify the truth behind the post and after huge efforts, I found that it was just a hoax, like many that are seen on social media. I even confirmed with Faisal Farooqui, the media manager of late Dilip Kumar Saab," Jain told IANS.

"These are fake tweets created by fake IDs. Mischief makers and absolutely false. Every word of these tweets is FALSE. There's no truth in their content," Farooqui said in a written statement to Jain.

Farooqui added that the property goes to the late actor's wife (Saira Banu Khan), herself an acclaimed actress, who was beside her husband till his last breath. Farooqui had grown up with Dilip Kumar Saab and has been close to the family, informed Jain.

According to the cyber sleuth, further investigations by SMHS into the gargantuan World Wide Web (WWW) did not turn up even a remote mention of anything concerning Dilip Kumar or the Waqf Board.

He suspects that event the figure of Rs 98 crore was "made-up", just to match with the age at which the towering actor breathed his last, as the fake spreaders had no access to any authentic data.

"The message caught attention because of the timing, and the financial and the religious angles involved in it. It reached millions across the country and abroad, but now it is confirmed that the message was blatantly fake and intended to misguide the people by certain vested elements," Jain said.

Surprisingly, some individuals and groups that posted/forwarded the message without due verification, are followed by several VIPs like Union ministers, state ministers, leading politicians, prominent activists, celebs and other bigwigs, he said.

Later, along the way, Jain said the message length also grew with more obnoxious and even inflammatory types of content added to it, whipping up passions.

Nevertheless, he admitted that it is "extremely difficult" to ascertain the actual source/origin/creator of such questionable messages on the social media, as many take refuge behind fake names, identity or locations that are impossible to track.