By Anmol Alphonso
A set of old and unrelated photos including one showing a man with whip marks on his back is being shared with the false claim that it is from the recent farmers' protest in Kurukshetra over procurement of sunflower seeds at Minimum Support Price (MSP) on June 7, 2023.
Police had detained several farmers, including Gurnam Singh Chadhuni on Tuesday when they were blocking Delhi-Ambala national highway (NH-44) near Kurukshetra seeking procurement of sunflower seeds at MSP in Haryana on June 7, 2023. The highway was blocked for nearly seven hours owing to the protests. To disperse the farmers, the police had also resorted to lathicharge apart from using water cannons, reported The Indian Express.
Wrestler Sakshee Malikkh tweeted the set of photos with a caption in Hindi, "The farmers only asked for MSP for their crops. But the cruel system gave them lathis and arrests. We condemn the arrest of farmer leader Gurnam Singh Chadhuni, he should be released soon. The news of the martyred farmer in the movement has brought tears to his eyes."
(In Hindi - किसानों ने सिर्फ़ अपनी फसलों की एमएसपी माँगी थी. लेकिन क्रूर तंत्र ने उन्हें लाठियाँ और गिरफ़्तारियाँ दीं. किसान नेता गुरनाम सिंह चढूनी की गिरफ़्तारी की हम निंदा करते हैं, उनकी जल्द रिहाई हो. आंदोलन में शहीद हुए किसान की खबर ने आँखें नम कर दी हैं)
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Aam Aadmi Party leader Sanjay Singh had also tweeted the same photos with the caption, "He is the food giver of India. Their crime is that they want the right price for their grains. The Khattar government said, "If you ask for the price of food grains, you will die."
(Original text in Hindi: ये भारत के अन्नदाता हैं। इनका गुनाह ये है की ये अपने अनाज का सही दाम चाहते है। खट्टर सरकार ने कहा “अनाज का दाम माँगोगे तो जान ले लेंगे”)
Also Read:No, President Droupadi Murmu Did Not Target The Govt Over Wrestlers' Protest
FACT-CHECK
BOOM found that the set of photos are old and unrelated to the recent farmers' protests in Kurukshetra, Haryana seeking procurement of sunflower seeds at MSP when police had resorted to lathi-charge.
Photo 1
We found that the first photo showing a Sikh man with whip marks on his back is from 2019 when a father and son duo were brutally thrashed by Delhi police, after a scuffle broke out over parking a vehicle.
BOOM had previously debunked the same photo on January 27, 2021, when it was being shared falsely linking it to the farmers' tractor rally which turned violent on January 26, 2021.
Upon running a reverse image search and a keyword search we found tweets with the same images which stated that the incident took place in Mukherjee Nagar area of Delhi, where two men were brutally thrashed by the police for allegedly flouting traffic rules.
Sikh Siyasat and Tribune India had reported on the incident on June 17, 2019, stating it is from Delhi's Mukherjee Nagar area, where a scuffle broke out between a commercial vehicle driver and cops of Delhi after the latter grazed past a police van. The cops reportedly thrashed the driver and his son, who had threatened them with a sword.
Dilli Tak had also carried an interview of Sarabjit Singh who was beaten.
Photo 2
The second photo showing a man's severely injured head is from August 2021 when three farmers had got stitches, one lost his sight after the Haryana Police had lathi-charged protesting farmers at Karnal’s Gharaunda toll plaza.
We found a tweet by journalist Mandeep Punia who had tweeted the same photo stating that the protester is Ravinder who got a 7 cm long wound on his head which had been stitched.
BOOM was unable to verify the collage with four photos of men showing their injury marks.
