A set of pictures is going viral on social media platforms, one showing a Sikh man with a bandage to the left eye and another of a Sikh man in military uniform with the claim that they are the same person. With the image, it is being alleged that a retired Army officer was injured during the ongoing farmers’ protests near Delhi.

A verified Facebook user, Salman Pratapgarhi shared both the images with a caption in Hindi that can be roughly translated to, "Both pictures are of the same person. One is a protector of our borders and the other is fighting for farmers’ rights after retirement. He is PPS Dhillon. For the IT cell, he’s a Khalistani.”

This post has been reshared over 4000 times. 

Several other Facebook and Twitter users are sharing the same set of images is being shared with the same claim. 

The truth behind the claim 

In our investigation, we found this claim to be misleading. The men seen in both the image are not the same. The man in military uniform is indeed retired Indian Army Captain Pirthipal Singh Dhillon, however, neither he is participating in the farmers’ protest and nor he can be seen in the image wearing a bandage on one of his eyes. 

With the help of a reverse image search, we found Dhillon’s picture on the Facebook page “Sikh Military History Forum”. The picture was uploaded by one “Sukhwinder Singh Sarpanch Uboke” on November 29. The caption says, “Today is my father’s birthday. Hon. Captain pirthipal Singh Dhillon. Retired in 1993, 17 Sikh regiment. He is one of those soldiers who fought the battles of 1965,1971 and 1989-90(Sri Lanka). God bless you dad”.

On checking Sukhwinder Singh’s personal Facebook profile, we also found a similar picture from the birthday celebration uploaded on the same day. 

We reached out to Sukhwinder Singh over Facebook who confirmed to Fact Hunt that the injured man seen in the viral image is not his father. retired Captain Pirthipal Singh Dhillon and he is not participating in the farmers’ protest. He said, "This is absolutely false. My father, Capt. Prithipal Singh Dhillon is at home and he did not participate in the farmers' protest in Delhi. His picture has been falsely linked to this picture of an injured man."

The image showing an elderly injured Sikh man

This image is being circulated in the wake of ongoing farmers' protest in Delhi alleging that man in it is a farmer who was injured during the ongoing protest.

A video of the same man was also uploaded by a Twitter user on November 29.

We were not able to independently verify the identity of the man or the context of the image and video, however, it is clear that the man with the bandaged eye is not retired Army Captain Pirthipal Singh Dhillon. 

Therefore, a set of pictures are being linked to falsely claim that a retired Army Captain PPS Dhillon was injured during the ongoing farmers’ protest near Delhi. It is clear that the man with the bandaged eye is not the retired Army Captain and he is not participating in the ongoing farmers' protest.