Sanjay Jat is the national spokesperson of the Akhil Bharat Hindu Mahasabha (ABHM), a Hindutva organization, based in Uttar Pradesh (UP). He is known for regularly creating conspiracy theories around the Taj Mahal, a UNESCO world heritage site in Agra, and for implicating Muslims in a fake cow slaughter case.

In April 2023, Jat and 3 other ABHM members were arrested for attempting to implicate 3 Muslim men in a cow slaughter case against whom they held a grudge, on the eve of a Hindu festival. Cow slaughter has stringent laws against it in UP. During police interrogation, it was revealed that Jat was allegedly the main conspirator and that the cow was actually slaughtered by a competitor of the Muslim men to frame them.

Jat has routinely stirred controversy around the Taj Mahal claiming that it was built on top of a Shiva Temple. In May 2022 he stated “It was destroyed by Mughal invaders so that a mosque could be built there,” adding “We respect the courts but if needed we will demolish the Taj and prove the existence of a temple there.”

In March 2024, Jat stated, “We have been fighting on all platforms, in court and on ground and will continue to hold Taj Mahal – Tejo Mahalaya – a Hindu temple come what may.”

When two tourists urinated inside the Taj Mahal in September 2024, Jat said “For us, it is a sacred temple of Lord Shiv. This has hurt our religious sentiments, and we will ensure it is purified according to our rituals. Though we were stopped, we will find a way.”

In February 2024, ABHM filed a petition in an Agra court seeking a ban on the observation of the ‘Urs,’ an event to mark the death of Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan, who commissioned the Taj Mahal. According to Jat, neither the Mughals, nor the British allowed Urs to take place inside the Taj Mahal based on the response to a Right to Information petition. However, the ‘Urs’ organizing committee chairman Syed Ibrahim Zaidi, claimed that the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) issues yearly permissions for the event, and had granted permission again that year.