Update (09 June 2023):
Condemning the arrest of farmer leader Gurnam Singh Chadhuni, wrestler Sakshee Malikkh has tweeted some photos of injured persons alleging that farmers demanding MSP for their crops were lathi charged and arrested. While the media reported that police had resorted to lathicharge to disperse the protesting farmers, the first two images tweeted by wrestler Sakshee Malikkh were old. The first image shows a Gramin Sewa auto driver who was thrashed by the Delhi Police in 2019, the second image is was allegedly of a farmer injured in the police lathicharge on 28 August 2021 in Karnal, Haryana. We couldn’t find any details of the other image which shows a collage of injured persons.
Published (29 January 2021):
A photo is being shared on social media claiming it as the picture of Delhi Police thrashing a farmer at the tractor rally clashes on Republic Day in Delhi. Another post with the photo of an injured Sikh man is also being shared with a similar claim. On 26 January 2021, thousands of protesting farmers equipped with swords and kirpans charged at Delhi Police and broke through the barricades in Delhi. These posts are being shared widely in this context. Let’s verify the claims made in the post.
Claim: Photos of Delhi police thrashing the farmers who participated in the tractor rally organized on Republic Day.
Fact: While one photo shows a Sikh protestor being stopped by Delhi police while marching towards the Prime Minister’s office in 2013, the wounded Sikh man in the other photo is a Gramin Sewa auto driver who was thrashed by the Delhi Police in 2019. These photos have nothing to do with the recent violent clashes between the protesting farmers and the Delhi police. Hence, the claims made in the posts are FALSE.
Photo-1:
On reverse image search of the photo shared in the post, a similar photo was found in an article published by ‘Daily Mail’ news website on 05 May 2013. In the description of the photo, it is mentioned that a Sikh protestor fell on the floor during a protest demanding justice for the victims of the 1984 anti-Sikh riots. According to the article, a group of Sikh protestors attempted to march towards the then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s residence to protest against the acquittal of Congress leader Sajjan Kumar in the 1984 anti-Sikh riots case. Around 50 protestors who tried to break through the barricades were arrested by the police officers.
When we searched for other sources using these keywords, we found several articles that covered the Sikh protestors marching towards the then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s residence in 2013. They can be seen here, here, and here.
Photo-2:
On reverse image search of the photo shared in the post, a similar photo was found in a news article published on 17 June 2019. In the article, it is mentioned that Delhi police brutally thrashed a Gramin Sewa auto driver and his son at Mukherjee Nagar in North West Delhi on 16 June 2019. These photos show the injured Gramin Sewa auto driver. It is reported that the police officials involved in this brutal incident were suspended.
When we searched for more details using these keywords, we found several articles reporting this incident on their news websites. They can be seen here, here and here.
From all these pieces of evidence, it can be concluded that the photos shared in the post are related to old incidents and have nothing to do with the recent violent clashes that took place at the farmers’ tractor rally in New Delhi.
To sum it up, photos related to the old incidents are being shared as Delhi police beating up the farmers who participated in tractor rally organized on Republic Day.
