Did Punjab Police Share This Picture of Amritpal Singh With Long Hair? No!
While the first three pictures of Amritpal Singh were shared by the Punjab police, the fourth one has been altered.
Fact-Check | This picture of Amritpal Singh in long hair is edited.
(Photo: Altered by The Quint)
A set of four pictures of fugitive and 'Waris Punjab De' (WPD) chief Amritpal Singh, including one where he is 'disguised' as a woman, is going viral on the internet.
What is the claim?: Those sharing the pictures are claiming that the Punjab police had released them to ask for public support in their efforts to nab Singh.
An archive of the post can be seen here.
Kreately.in, a right-wing propaganda website that has been called out for spreading disinformation in the past, also shared the image captioning the image "Guess who?".
(More archives to similar claims can be found here and here.)
What is the truth?: We found that while the first three pictures were shared by the Punjab police, the fourth one has been altered using an editing application called FaceApp.
Three related pictures: A keyword search led us to the tweet posted on the media agency ANI's official Twitter handle.
It was uploaded on 21 March and contained seven pictures of Singh that were released by the Punjab police.
It also quoted Punjab Inspector General of Police (IGP) Sukhchain Singh Gill who requested people's support in their attempts to nab the now-declared fugitive.
We found that three pictures - Singh's mirror selfie with beard, him wearing a turban, and a clean-shaved mirror selfie - which were seen in the viral image were also included in the set of seven pictures.
Last picture is edited: On a closer look, we found that the picture had a watermark which said "FaceApp".
The picture had a watermark which said FaceApp.
What is FaceApp?: It is an image and video editing mobile application developed by FaceApp Technology Limited. The application can transform human faces using Artificial Intelligence and generate realistic pictures.
Using Singh's clean-shaved picture as reference, we generated a picture of him in long hair which looked similar to the viral image.
On using the application, we were able to create a similar picture as the viral one.
Amritpal Singh still on the run: Singh, who was declared a fugitive, still remains at large and is suspected to have escaped out of Punjab according to recent reports.
The government's crackdown against the leader have led to protests outside Indian embassies in countries like the United Kingdom and the United States.
Conclusion: While several pictures of Singh were released by the Punjab police, one of them which showed him in long hair was altered.
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