An old photograph from the farmers' protest is circulating with false claims that Olympic bronze medalist wrestler Sakshee Malikkh was pinned down and stamped on her face with police boots for protesting against the Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) president Brij Bhushan Saran Singh.
BOOM found that the photo is from 2021 when a cop pinned down a man named Ranjit Singh for protesting against the contentious farm laws at Delhi's Singhu border.
Wrestlers including Sakshee Malikkh, Vinesh Phogat and Bajrang Punia, who represented India in international-level tournaments on various occasions, have been protesting against the WFI chief along with others alleging that Singh has sexually harassed multiple women athletes. The protesting athletes on May 28 tried to march to the new parliament building during the inauguration ceremony but were met with force and detained by the Delhi Police over charges of rioting and other IPC offences.
Singh, an accused of multiple crimes including murder, rioting, kidnapping over the years, is a ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MP from Uttar Pradesh's Kaisarganj and was present at the time of the new parliament inauguration on May 28.
The picture is being shared with the caption, "This is Sakshee Malikkh who won the first Olympic medal in women's wrestling for the country. Such a picture was not seen even in Taliban. Is the country's land alive or dead or has it been sold!! Wrestlers Protest". (sic.)
Click here to view the tweet.
Another Twitter user shared the photo with the caption, "If this image of a woman wrestler who has won medals for India does not stir you, nothing will of this fascist regime".
Click here to view the tweet.
Fact Check
BOOM performed a reverse image search and found an old Deccan Herald article carrying the original image along with a report on the farmers' protest from Delhi's Singhu border on January 29, 2021.
The picture was published with the caption, "Police pin down a farmer, who allegedly attacked Police SHO (Alipur) Pradeep Paliwal, during clashes between people claiming to be local villagers and farmers at the Singhu Border."
The photo credit for the image was given to news agency Press Trust of India.
We then performed a related keyword search about the same and found a report published by The Times of India on February 4, 2021, mentioning the person's name as Ranjit Singh.
An excerpt from the report states, "Ranjit Singh, 22, of Kajampur village in Punjab's Shaheed Bhagat Singh Nagar district had his face crushed under a cop's boot on Delhi's Singhu border, an image that reminded the world of George Floyd of Minneapolis, pinned to the ground with a cop's knee over his neck for 9 minutes. Floyd's death had sparked the global 'Black Lives Matter' movement."
A News 18 report from January 30, 2021, quoted a senior police officer speaking about the incident who said that Singh was arrested for attacking the SHO of Alipur police station with a sword.
The article regarding the protest states, "Situation at Delhi’s Haryana border at Singhu deteriorated on Friday afternoon as villagers clashed with protesting farmers after one thing led to another and the mob was seen armed with stones, lathis, swords. A police officer among others was injured."
Singh was released on March 17, 2021, from Tihar Jail and received a heroic welcome at his native village Kajampur in Punjab’s Nawanshahr district.