Fake photo of smiling female wrestlers in police custody viral, read fact check

The newly constructed Parliament House was inaugurated by Prime Minister Modi on Sunday 28 May 2023 in Delhi. On the other hand, at Jantar Mantar, one and a half kilometer away from the Parliament House, women wrestlers had given a call to hold Mahila Mahapanchayat. The angry wrestlers had barely taken a few steps towards the new Parliament building when the Delhi Police took them into custody.

Pictures and videos of the police action went viral on social media. In one of the pictures, female wrestlers Vinesh Phogat, Sangeeta Phogat and others can be seen taking a smiling selfie while sitting in a police bus.

Bollywood filmmaker Ashoke Pandit quote retweeted of Congress leader Raj Babbar and shared the same picture, writing, “Respected Raj ji, this is the real face of the drama on the road! It has become a part of a tool kit that works to break our country! The pride of the country is on a downfall today!” (English Translation)

Initially, a video was tweeted by Raj Babbar, “Talks of democracy inside the Parliament – Daughters were dragged on the road in the hot summer at a distance outside – Is this Sengol’s first justice?

Make up any argument – but this scene is the zenith of injustice and despotism of power. The country will not forget this vandalism on the promise.” (English translation)

A collage of two photographs has been shared by Kreately Media with captions written as “Caption this”

In the first picture it can be seen that Sangeeta Phogat is on the ground, holding the tricolor in her hand and above her is Vinesh Phogat. The police are trying to take them into custody like this.

Similarly, this photo has also been widely shared by other users.

Tweet Archive Link

Fact Check :

To know the reality of the viral picture, DFRAC reverse image searched it on Google and we found the same picture in a tweet by wrestler Bajrang Punia.

Punia has given a warning by tweeting the original picture, putting a fake stamp on the viral picture. He wrote, “IT cell people are spreading this false picture. We make it clear that a complaint will be filed against whoever posts this fake picture.” (English translation)

Meanwhile, we found a video shared by Ram Nihal Maurya, which he captioned, “This video is only for unethical types of journalists.” (English Translation)

It can be seen in this video how easily Vinesh Phogat and her colleagues have been edited to be shown as smiling big by the Face app.

Conclusion:

It is clear from wrestler Bajrang Punia’s tweet that the photo of female wrestlers taking a smiling selfie in a police, bus protesting against sexual allegations against BJP MP and Wrestling Federation of India president, Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh, is fake hence, the claim of Ashok Pandit and other such social media users is false.