Old debunked video is being passed off as police catching hold of fake Sikh in farmers protest - FACTLY
Sai Krishna Muthyanolla
November 30, 2020
A post with a video in which the police are seen forcibly removing turban of a Sikh man is being widely shared on social media with a claim that police caught hold of a fake Sikh in the farmers protest in Delhi. Through this article let’s fact-check the claim made in the post.
Claim: Police caught hold of a fake Sikh in farmers protest.
Fact: The video actually shows an incident which took place back in 2011, when Zilla Parishad Veterinary pharmacists were demanding regularization of their jobs. During the protest, a couple of policemen forcibly removed the turban of one of the Sikh protesters. There are news articles that reported this incident.  This incident has nothing to do with the ongoing farmer protests in Delhi. Hence the claim made in the post is FALSE.
Reverse image search of the screenshots of the video led us to a 2011 YouTube video which carried visuals similar to the one in the post. The caption of the video reads “Insult of Turban (Sikh’s Identity) @ Mohali Stadium by a Punjab Police Officer”.
Taking a cue from the YouTube video, Google search with relevant keywords led us to a few news articles which reported the incident. According to one such article, during a protest by Zilla Parishad Veterinary pharmacists demanding regularization of their jobs, two policemen happened to forcibly remove the turban of a protester. According to another news article, the two policemen who were involved in the act were suspended. With all these reports, we can conclude that the man seen in the video is indeed a Sikh and the video has nothing to do with the ongoing farmers protest in Delhi.
When the same video went viral linking it to CAA protests, FACTLY has debunked the claim. The fact-check story can be read here.
In the wake of the ongoing farmers protest against the new farm laws, posts like these are being shared across social media platforms with misleading claims.
To sum it up, the man seen in the video is indeed a Sikh and the incident has nothing to do with the ongoing farmers protest in Delhi.