A morphed photo of pro-Khalistan leader Amritpal Singh is being shared on social media with a false claim that it shows the Waris Punjab De (WPD) chief standing in front of a mosque in the United Arab Emirates.
Singh returned from Dubai in September 2022 after which he rose to prominence and was declared the head of WPD. He is currently on the run from Punjab Police who have launched a major manhunt to find him and have arrested 78 members from his outfit. The police have also released a set of seven images of Singh urging the general public to help them in their search. The doctored photo is being shared against this backdrop.
The morphed photo was tweeted by the Twitter handle Dr. Syed Rizwan Ahmed with the caption, "‘Fraud Punjab De!’ Neither a Sikh nor an Indian!"
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The same morphed photo is being shared since last month.
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FACT-CHECK
BOOM found that the viral photo of Amritpal Singh showing a mosque in the background is morphed. In the original photo taken from the LinkedIn account of Singh, behind him there is a glass structure, and the photo of the mosque has been added to make the false claim.
Singh was born in Amritsar’s Jallupur Khera hamlet in1993, and studied in a school near his village, Feruman in Punjab. In an interview to BOOM two weeks ago, Singh spoke about his background and stated that in 2008, he took admission in Lord Krishna Polytechnic to study mechanical engineering in Kapurthala, Punjab.
He further added that he did not complete his degree and went away to Dubai in 2012 where he helped his family’s transport business. These details that he mentioned match with the details on his LinkedIn profile where we found that the original photo on running a reverse image search.
On his LinkedIn profile he states, "Experienced Operations Manager with a demonstrated history of working in the transportation/trucking/railroad industry. Skilled in Supply Chain Optimization, Import, Operations Management, Freight, and Ocean Transportation. Strong operations professional with a Bachelor of Engineering (BEng) focused in Mechanical Engineering from Lord krishna polytechnic college kapurthala , Punjab."
The display photo of his account matches with the viral photo, however there is no mosque in the background
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Comparing the original photo posted on Singh's LinkedIn Profile and the viral photo, we can see the in the original one there is no mosque present in the background. In addition his hair has been cropped in the viral photo.
Additionally, the mosque seen in the background is the Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque in Abu Dhabi, UAE. The background photo has been cropped from photos taken at the mosque which are available online.
A comparison of a photo taken at the mosque from a medium post and the background seen in the morphed photo match, which shows that it has been cropped and added into it.