Morphed photo shows wrestlers smiling after being detained by police

Hyderabad: A photo showing wrestlers Vinesh Phogat and Sangeeta Phogat smiling after being detained by the Delhi police is going viral on social media. Those sharing the photo are trying to suggest that the wrestlers are not serious about their protest.

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Top Indian wrestlers Vinesh Phogat, Sakshi Malik, and Bajrang Punia have been living in makeshift tents at New Delhi’s Jantar Mantar for nearly 35 days, protesting against Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) chief Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh who has been accused of sexual harassment. On 28 May, they were detained by security personnel while they tried to march towards the new Parliament building during its inauguration.

Fact Check

NewsMeter found that the viral photo has been morphed.

On performing a reverse image search, we found a similar photo of the wrestlers being detained tweeted by the journalist Mandeep Punia. This photo does not show the wrestlers smiling and was shared hours before the viral photo went viral.

Wrestler Bajrang Punia also tweeted the morphed and original photos and said a complaint will be filed against those posting the fake picture.

We looked for the smiling pictures of Vinesh Phogat and Sangeeta Phogat on their verified social media handles and found both do not have dimples on their faces, as seen in the viral photo.

Several Twitter users pointed out that the viral photo has been morphed using the AI application called FaceApp. We also tried the same using the smile filter and got the same result as seen in the viral picture.

Hence, we conclude that the viral photo of the wrestlers has been morphed and the claim they were smiling after they were detained is false.