A set of two graphic images showing a man with whip marks on his back has surfaced with netizens falsely linking it to the farmers' tractor rally which turned violent on January 26.
BOOM found that the images are from 2019, when a father and son duo were brutally thrashed by Delhi police, after a scuffle broke out over parking a vehicle.
The images are doing the rounds with claims that the police inflicted torture on two Sikh men for participating in the tractor rally where thousands of protesting farmers entered Delhi with their tractors on January 26; the protesters eventually diverted to the Red Fort complex. This prompted police to resort to lathicharge and tear gas. A farmer died in the ensuing clash between the protesters and police. Delhi Police has so far detained 200 people in connection to the violence.
One such post in Bangla reads, ''Such torture on father and his son by police is heart breaking during Kisan Rally, today.''
(Original caption in Bangla: আজ কিষান রেলিতে পিতা পুত্রের উপর পুলিশের এই অত্যাচার কিন্তু বুক ফেটে যায়।) Click here to see the post and here for an archived link.
Warning: The images are graphic in nature
BOOM also received the image on its helpline for verification.
Fact Check
BOOM ran a reverse search on the photograph and found a Facebook post by Haryana Times on June 17, 2019.
Upon further 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.
The same image was tweeted by Ankit Lal, former social media strategist of Aam Aadmi Party.
According to Sikh Siyasat and Tribune India reports from June 17, 2019, the incident 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.
Disturbing footage showing the auto driver being beaten with a stick, kicked and thrashed went viral. Dilli Tak also carried an interview of Sarabjit Singh who was beaten.
Also Read: Twitter's User-Driven 'Birdwatch' Programme To Fight Misinformation
Images of the injury marks on the Sikh drivers were earlier viral to peddle misinformation about Kolkata Book Fair. Read BOOM's debunk here.