Fact Check: This photo of Rakesh Tikait with face inked is edited

New Delhi (Vishvas News). A picture of Bhartiya Kisan Union spokesperson Rakesh Tikait, with ink on his face, is going viral on social media, . It is being claimed with the post that Rakesh Tikait was attacked in Rajasthan, and the photo is from that incident.

Vishvas News found in its investigation that the viral claim is misleading. The viral photo is edited. In the original picture, there was no ink on Rakesh Tikait’s face. However, it is true that Rakesh Tikait’s convoy was attacked on 2 April at Tartarpur intersection of Alwar district in Rajasthan, but this picture has nothing to do with that incident.

What is a viral video?

The description accompanying this post reads: “भारत बंद करवाने चले थे। राजस्थान के पपलाज में जनता ने बुरी तरह पीटा और मुंह पर कालिख पोत दी।”(English translation) “He called for Bharat bandh, but the public in Papalaj in Rajasthan, has beaten him up badly and thrown ink on his face.”

The archive link to the viral post can be seen here.

Investigation

To start our investigation, we first searched this picture with the help of Google reverse image tool. We found this picture in a news published on 19 January 2021 on a website called awazeuttarpradesh.com. But in this picture there was no ink on Tikait’s face.

We also found this picture on the thumb image of a video on the YouTube channel of news agency ANI. Here too, there was no ink on Tikait’s face. This video was uploaded on 19 January 2021. According to the post, this picture is from the Singhu border.

For further confirmation, we contacted Sonu Rana, Jagran’s reporter covering the farmer protest at the Singhu border. He said, “This photo is edited. In the original photo, Rakesh Tikait did not have ink on his face. This picture is from the Singhu border, when the farmer leader Tikait refused to meet the committee constituted by the Supreme Court on 19 January 2021.”

Now we had find out whether Tikait has been attacked in Rajasthan recently or not. On searching with the keyword, we got a news report from jagran.com stating, (translated) “On Friday (April 2) Tikait addressed a Kisan Sabha in Harsauli in Alwar district and in Bansur. On the way to Tarapur, locals attacked his convoy. The glass panes of his car were broken with the lathis and stone were also pelting on their convoy”.

According to a news published on hindi.news18.com, (translated) “The convoy of Rakesh Tikait, the leader of the farmers’ movement, was attacked by a mob in Rajasthan on Friday. This attack occurred when Tikait was going to Bansur after addressing a gathering at Harsaura in Alwar. Meanwhile, in Tartarpur, the mob started throwing stones at the convoy of Tikait. The glass of Tikait’s car was damaged. Anti-social elements also threw ink on Tikait.”

This post was shared by Facebook user Mukesh Patel. The user is a resident of Indore.