Several visuals are being widely shared on social media platforms, along with the claim stating that Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, leader of the banned group Sikhs for Justice (SFJ), died in a road accident in the United States.
Who all shared it?: Twitter Blue user Dr Vishal Garg (archive here) and Consulting Editor of Zee News Deepak Chaurasia (archive here), among others, shared the image along with the claim.
An archive of the post can be found here.
(Source: Twitter/Screenshot)
(Archives of similar posts can be found here, here, and here.)
What is the truth?:
Both visuals are from the United States, they are old and not related to a recent accident.
While The Quint could not independently verify if Pannun was alive or not, people close to Pannun have taken to Twitter to claim that he is alive.
Pannun also shared a video of himself outside the United Nations headquarters in New York on 6 July.
Image 1
On performing a Google Lens search, we came across the same image uploaded on Getty Images.
The image was uploaded on 2 March 2021.
Its caption mentioned that a collision between an SUV and a semi-truck happened near Holtville, California.
News reports: According to Los Angeles Times, the collision between both vehicles happened near the United States-Mexico border.
The SUV was reportedly carrying 25 people at the time of the accident.
The collision killed at least 13 people and left several others injured.
Image 2
We performed a reverse image search on the second image and found a report published in The Press Democrat on 7 February 2022.
The report carried the same image and was headlined, "Woman dies in 5-vehicle Highway 101 collision near Healdsburg."
It mentioned that the California Highway Patrol (CHP) is investigating the collision. Part of Highway 101 was shut down for several hours.
The collision took place when a driver of a Dodge Ram struck a vehicle from behind which led to chain reaction.
The report quoted CHP Officer David deRutte who said that the collision left a Hyundai Tucson "mangled" and killed a woman sitting on the rear seat.
Other news reports: A CBS News report added that speeding was one of the factors behind the unfortunate incident. It further said that one person was killed and three others were injured due to the collision.
About Gurpatwant Singh Pannun: Pannun is the one of the founders of the banned group SFJ and a pro-Khalistani leader.
He was booked under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) in May 2022 in a case related to hoisting of Khalistani flags outside the state assembly in Dharamshala, Himachal Pradesh.
Why is the claim being shared?: Social media platforms have been abuzz with claims that Panun was recently killed in a road accident in the US.
Hindi daily Dainik Bhaskar published a report which mentioned Pannun reportedly met with an accident on Highway 101 in America.
The organisation used a picture which purportedly showed the accident site and car belonging to Pannun.
It should be noted that Dainik Bhaskar could not verify the image.
However, the image dates back to August 2017 and shows an accident site in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania.
A Fox43 report carried similar visuals and mentioned that one person died in the single-vehicle crash in Lancaster County.
Contradicting claims on Pannun's death: The founder of Khalsa Today Sukhi Chahal took to Twitter to refute the claims of Pannun's death. He said that the 'information' is fake and false.
Baaz News, a Sikh and Punjabi diaspora news outlet, also mentioned on their Twitter account that Pannun "is alive and was not in a fatal car accident."
It should be noted that their account has been withheld in India.
We also came across a video posted by one Jagdeep Singh on Twitter which showed Pannun talking in front of the United Nations' Headquarters in New York.
In the video, he can be heard saying that the video was recorded on 5 July.
Conclusion: While we could not independently if Pannun is still alive or not, it is clear that the visuals being shared along with the claims are old and unrelated.
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