2013 photo falsely linked to the farmers' present protest against the Agriculture laws - FACTLY
Sai Krishna Muthyanolla
September 21, 2020
A photo is being shared recently on social media claiming it as the farmers protest against the current government amid the passage of Agriculture Amendment bills in the parliament. In the post, it is claimed that farmers are not Savarkar to fear and beg mercy on seeing police guns. Let’s verify the claim made in the post.
Photo of a police officer pointing a gun against a farmer protesting against the Modi government .
Fact: Photo in the post was shot during a confrontation between villagers and cops in Meerut district, Uttar Pradesh. On ‘29 September 2013, a large number of villagers gathered at a maha panchayat venue defying section 144 imposed by District magistrate to protest against the arrest of local BJP MLA Sangeet Som. It has nothing to do with ongoing protests of farmers against the agriculture bills passed by the Government of India. Hence the claim made in the post is FALSE.
On reverse image search of the photo shared in the post, similar photo was found in an article published by ‘ The Indian Express’ news website on ‘30 September 2013’. The image credits were given to PTI and the caption reads ‘A security officer takes on a villager during the clash in Khera on Sunday’. The report states the protests were held by a large number of villagers gathered in Khera village in Sarghana for the maha panchayat to protest against the arrest and slapping of National Security Act on local BJP MLA Sangeet Singh Som in connection with the Muzaffarnagar violence.
When searched with relevant keywords, we found an article from The Hindu which has the same image in their article. This article also mentions that the image was captured during the violence that erupted at Khera village after supporters of the jailed BJP MLA Sangeet Singh Som clashed with the security forces on 29 September 2013.
The same photo was also found in an article published by ‘The Pioneer’ news website on ‘30 September 2013’.  The then Uttar Pradesh Home Secretary  Kamal Saxena in a media report stated that the wife and the brother of MLA Sangeet Som were responsible for the violence in Khera village on ‘ 29 September 2013’.
Sangeet Som was booked under the National Security Act (NSA) for allegedly making hate speech and distributing a fake video which led to the massive Hindu- Muslim riots in Muzaffarnagar.
To sum it up, an 2013 photo is now falsely shared as the photo of on going farmers protest against the Agriculture amendment bills passed by the Government of India.