Morphed photo shows Mia Khalifa at wrestlers’ protest in Delhi

Hyderabad: Social media users are sharing a photo of Indian wrestlers who are protesting against the Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) president and Kaiserganj BJP MP Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh. The wrestlers have accused Singh of sexual harassment of women wrestlers and are adamant about not calling off the protest until Singh’s arrest.

Amidst this, a viral photo shows Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) chief Jayant Chaudhary and Mia Khalifa along with the wrestlers at a protest. Facebook and Twitter users shared the photo claiming that Mia Khalifa joined the protest in support of the wrestlers. (Click here and here to see the posts.)

Fact Check

NewsMeter found that the viral photo has been morphed.

On performing a reverse image search of the photo, we found the original photo posted by an Instagram account on 27 April 2023. It shows Jayant Chaudhary along with the wrestlers but does not show Mia Khalifa.

We also found the original photo and the morphed photo posted by a Twitter user. The user in the tweet alleged that RSS volunteers have morphed the photo.

Here is a comparison of the morphed and original photos:

We also found a video of Jayant Chaudhary speaking at the protest. The video was published by the verified YouTube channel Khabrain Abhi Tak on 27 April. At no point in the video did we see Mia Khalifa joining the protest.

From this, we conclude that the viral photo is morphed and the claim that Mia Khalifa joined the wrestlers’ protest in Delhi is false.