Old Pic of Oil Thrown on Haryana CM Revived Amid Farmers’ Protests

Fact-Check on Farmers’ Protest | We found that the viral photo was three years old when a man threw black oil on Haryana CM Khattar in Hisar.

(Photo: The Quint)

A photograph of Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar is going viral amid the ongoing farmers' protests with a claim that the farmers in Rohtak threw something at him.

The viral photo comes days after two people, including an elderly farmer, were injured in a clash between the protesting farmers and the police during the CM’s visit to Rohtak.

However, we found that the viral picture of Khattar was three years old when a man threw black oil on the CM in Hisar.

CLAIM

One of the posts with the image made a comparison between the injured farmer and Khattar and said that the farmers threw something at Khattar because they were injured by the Haryana Police.

Most tweets with the photo carried hashtags #FarmersProtest and #किसान_देगा_खट्टर_को_टक्कर.

An archive of the post can be found here.(Source: Twitter/Screenshot)

More tweets with the same photo can be found here and here.

WHAT WE FOUND OUT

We conducted a reverse image search on the image and found news articles dating back to 18 May 2018. A report published in The Times of India carried the same image.

A link to the story can be found here.(Source: The Times of India/Screenshot)

According to the article, a man identified as Paarveen Kumar threw black oil on the Chief Minister while he was about to visit a local temple in Hisar during a roadshow. The incident took place in May 2018, much before the ongoing farmers’ protests over the three new farm bills started.

We also found another image published in the same report where one can see that there was no oil on Khattar’s right cheek. However, in the viral image, one can see black oil on Khattar’s face as well.

A link to the story can be found here.(Source: The Times of India/Screenshot)

We also found a video of the incident published on Zee Hindustan’s YouTube channel. The news video documents the entire incident where Khattar can be seen wearing the same clothes as in the viral image. When black oil is thrown at him, a few drops fall on this face but not as seen in the viral image.

Evidently, an old image of someone throwing black oil on Haryana CM Khattar has been edited and revived amid the ongoing farmers’ protests.

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