Man behind fake, alarmist posts on FB is possibly based in Lahore
FB profile pictures of Shaikh, whose last post announced the funeral of his nephew at the Nariyalwadi Kabrastan in Mazgaon on Sunday, contradict his bio where he calls Mathura his hometown and Mumbai the city where he currently lives.
Shaikh's Facebook page that he had deactivated on Sunday evening following the hoax reappeared on Monday night but was disabled yet again on Tuesday afternoon. In between, TOI combed through his profile to find several instances where Shaikh appears to have airbrushed his reality to create a false identity, perhaps to make himself more appealing to his friends, most of who seemed to be from India.
While his photo albums are full of commonly shared images from Mumbai's streets which he claims to have taken, discrepancies in some are obvious.
where he has tagged the location of certain images, in which he appears, as "Cafe Leopold" and "Pawan Hans" even though the backdrop and surroundings do not reflect the genuine locations.
What gives Shaikh away is a photograph of him seated inside a car whose rear windshield bears a sticker with the word "Ravians" and a logo. As it turns out, 'Ravians' is a name used by the alumni of the Government College University in Lahore and the logo on the car sticker resembles the university's emblem.
In another tell-tale image, Shaikh who is dressed in a pilot's uniform in most of his Facebook photos and seen posing in and around mini aircraft and even flying one in a video post, dons a pilot hat with the name 'Hybrid' stitched on to it.
It seems Lahore has a 19-year-old aeronautical organization called Hybrid Aviation that is managed by aviation professionals and offers a range of flying services across Pakistan such as aircraft charter, air ambulance, mail delivery and air advertisements. Hybrid also has a flying school that imparts flying training to aspiring and eligible pilots.
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