Will join investigation, says Deep Sidhu
Chandigarh: Actor-turned-activist Deep Sidhu, who has been booked in connection with the religious flag incident at Red Fort, has said he needs some time to bring out the truth and then will join the investigation.
The 36-year-old Sidhu is in the eye of a storm for being among the protesters who put up a religious flag atop the Red Fort on Republic Day.
Arrest warrant has been issued against me and also a look out notice has been issued against me. First I want to give this message that I will join the investigation, Sidhu said in a video uploaded on Facebook.
He said he needed some time to bring out the truth.
Because whatever has been spread, it is false information and it is misleading the public at large. Therefore, I need a couple of days to bring out the truth and then I will join the investigation, said Sidhu.
I am requesting the investigation agencies...I have not done anything wrong then why should I run away and why should I be scared. I am not scared.I have done nothing wrong and that will come out, he said.
He told the investigation agencies and the police department that he will come to them in two days.
The kind of rumours being spread is not based on facts. I need two days to bring out the truth based on the facts and I will collect all the evidence and proof, he stated.
The Delhi Police had named actor Deep Sidhu in an FIR lodged in connection with the Red Fort incident.
Sidhu was present at the Red Fort when a religious flag and a farmer flag were put at the flagpole at the historic monument, triggering massive outrage.
Sidhu had been accused by farm bodies of trying to defame their agitation and termed a "traitor". On Thursday, he had hit out at farm leaders for allegedly spreading false propaganda and hatred against him.
On January 26, Sidhu, hailing from Punjab's Muktsar district, had sought to defend the action of protesters at the Red Fort, saying they did not remove the national flag and had put up the 'Nishan Sahib' as a symbolic protest.
Sidhu was also a close aide of BJP MP Sunny Deol, who contested from the Gurdaspur seat in Punjab during the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. He remained with Deol during the poll campaigning.
Deol had distanced himself from Sidhu in December last year after he joined the farmers' agitation.
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Fact Check: viral claim of Bashar al-Assad visit to his aunt’s home in Moscow is false
Claim: The video shows Bashar al-Assad visiting his aunt’s home in Moscow in 2024.
Fact: The claim is false. The video is from 2017 and shows Assad visiting wounded soldiers.
Hyderabad: On December 20, 2024, thousands of Syrians gathered in Damascus’s Umayyad Square, celebrating the establishment of a new government with fireworks and displays of a new flag. The event followed the return of many Syrians to the country after the fall of Bashar al-Assad’s regime.
Amid these celebrations, a video went viral, claiming to show Assad visiting his aunt’s home in Moscow. The video, shared by an X user, was accompanied by the caption: “Bashar al-Assad visits his aunt in her humble home in Moscow, the Republic of Russia, where he took refuge” (translated from Arabic). (Archive)
The 1:30-minute video shows Assad, along with his family, visiting a house and being warmly received by a lady and others in the household.
Similar claims can be seen here and here. (Archive 1, Archive 2)
Fact Check
NewsMeter found that the claim is false. The video is not recent nor show Assad visiting his aunt.
A reverse image search led us to the same footage posted on YouTube by the Syrian Presidency channel on September 16, 2018, under the title ‘The hero, Ayham Mahmoud Donia, after his injury, received President al-Assad and his family himself, walking on his feet’.
This hinted that the video is old and unrelated to recent events.
Further, a keyword search led to a report from Al Yawm Al Saabie on June 26, 2017, which described Assad and his family visiting wounded soldiers in the Hama countryside.
The report included the same video, with the description stating that the woman in the footage is the mother of a wounded Syrian soldier.
The report explained that one of the soldiers, Ayham Mahmoud Donia, had been severely injured but defied expectations by walking again to greet Assad. This visit was part of the regime’s ‘Wounded of the Nation Program,’ aimed at supporting soldiers wounded in the conflict.
Therefore, the claim that the video shows Assad visiting his aunt in Moscow is false. The footage is from a 2017 visit where Assad met injured soldiers in Syria.
(This story was originally published by newsmeter, and republished by english.varthabharati.in as part of the Shakti Collective)
