A photograph of Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann – standing next to a man – has gone viral with people identifying him as the gangster Goldy Brar, who has been named by the Punjab police in the brutal murder of Punjabi singer Sidhu Moose Wala.
Moose Wala was shot dead by unidentified assailants in Jawaharke village of Mansa district in Punjab on Sunday, 29 May.
Hours later, two Facebook posts started doing the rounds in which another gangster Lawrence Bishnoi and Brar claimed to be taking responsibility for Moose Wala's killing. While we have not been able to verify the authenticity of these posts, the police has said that the two are involved.
However, this photo shows Mann with another man who has the same name as the gangster, but is a 29-year-old businessman from Jandwala, village in Firozepur district of Punjab.
We reached out to Brar and he dismissed the claim and added that he was filing a police complaint against individuals who had first made the false claim.
CLAIM
A Facebook user wrote, "Goldy Brar of Canada has claimed responsibility for the shootout that killed Sidhu Moose Wala" as the caption while sharing the viral image.
People took jibes at Mann for having a photograph with a "gangster". One Facebook user questioned the CM for removing Moose Wala's security cover a day before his murder.
The same photo was shared by several other social media users on Facebook and Twitter, archives of some can be found here and here.
WHAT WE FOUND OUT
We conducted a reverse image search on Google along with the keywords "Goldy Brar" and found the photograph on Facebook.
The photograph was posted on 10 March, the day the results of the 2022 Punjab polls were declared. Bhagwant Mann-led Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) won a historic mandate and formed the government later that month.
We then came across a video posted by Brar on 29 May, where he clarified that his photo was being misused by people to make these false claims.
He said that he will take legal action against the people who have shared the photo and appealed to the Punjab government to take action against the ones spreading misinformation.
We then reached out to Brar, a 29-year-old businessman dealing in agriculture products. Brar told us that he was a supporter of AAP and did ground-level mobilisation of supporters for the party. He said that the viral image with Mann was taken when AAP won in the Punjab Assembly elections.
Brar informed us that he had approached the local police and was in the process of filing a complaint against individuals who had first shared the claim.
He added that the piece of misinformation has caused him a lot of trouble and he had already given interviews to regional news channels and web portals.
Further, English news channel India Today shared a picture of the Canada-based gangster Goldy Brar, which isn't the picture which is going viral.
Evidently, a man with the same name – Goldy Brar – has been misidentified as the Canada-based gangster, who has been named by the police in the killing of singer-turned-politician Moose Wala.
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