Fact Check: Video of a man being crushed under a tractor-trailer is not from the Farmers’ Protest 2024
The viral video is old and unrelated to the ongoing farmers’ protest.
By Sunanda Naik Published on 14 Feb 2024 11:56 AM GMT
Similar claims on X can be seen here and here.
The video is being shared with the caption, ‘Khalistani terrorists, Tractor attacked Haryana Police, then after finding out, kept dragging the body for 50 meters. It is clear in the video that a murder conspiracy is being carried out || Remember terrorists... each one's blood. The drop will be accounted for... everything will be remembered.’
Another user sharing the same video claimed that the framers tried to push the Policeman under the tractor.
Fact Check
NewsMeter found the claim to be false as the viral video is old and unrelated to the ongoing farmers’ protest.
On carefully analyzing the visuals, we noticed a watermark of an X user “Gagandeep Singh” on the video. Taking this as a cue, we scanned Gagandeep Singh’s X handle and found the same video posted by him on August 21, 2023.
The user had shared the video with the caption, “A clash between farmers and the Punjab Police occurred in Sangrur's village Longowal as they were heading towards Chandigarh to participate in a protest. During the clash, one farmer lost his leg as he came under a tractor trolley tyre & he lost his life during treatment. While one policeman got severely injured.”
We also found a screenshot from the video in a report published by a local news website PTC News on August 21, 2023. According to the report, the clash happened between the Police and farmers at Longowal village in Punjab when the latter were heading towards Chandigarh to participate in a protest. A 70-year-old man identified as Pritam Singh died after a tractor-trailer ran him over in a stampede-like situation.
The same incident was covered by Times Now, Outlook, The Wire, and many other mainstream media outlets in August 2023.
Moreover, we found the same visual uploaded on the YouTube channel of The Mirror and The Tribune with the same details.
On August 21, 2023, Sangrur Police also tweeted the visuals from the incident, expressing their deep condolences for the man who got killed during the protest. The tweet reads, “Reg unfortunate death of a protester today at Longowal, it is clarified that as per witnesses & videos d deceased was overrun by a rashly driven tractor trolley by protesters, which also severely injured a police inspector who narrowly escaped from getting crushed. Our condolences.’
Hence, it is evident that the viral video is old and unrelated to the recent Farmers’ Protest.
