CLAIM

Punishing migrant workers for leaving during lockdown. They have no hope other than to leave. Already Hunger clad ,… https://t.co/WGQTss4fRE — UmaMaheshVaran P Selvam (@LumosMaxima1510) 1585549798000

A fish rots from the head down. The Prime Minister of India has uttered no word of condemnation against these sham… https://t.co/jMsMFXMMrz — JNUSU (@JNUSUofficial) 1585549934000

TRUTH

VERIFICATION AND METHODOLOGY

VERDICT

Journalist Rana Ayyub shared a photo of a group of men being made to squat and hold ears by police officials and labelled it as punishment meted out to “Labourers leaving the lockdown”.“Punishing the labourers for leaving the lockdown. Cry my beloved country,” she had tweeted.Here’s the screengrab of the now deleted tweet by Ayyub:The content of the tweet was picked up by several Twitter users, who posted the photo making similar claims.Journalist Abhisar Sharma too shared the photo with a similar claim in a video posted on March 30, 2020 by YouTube account NewsClickin.One can see the visual at 12:31.JNUSU, the official Twitter account of the JNU students' union, shared the same photo with a similar caption. JNUSU labelled the police officials as “Shameless men in uniform who 'punished' jobless migrants trying to go home”.The people being made to squat were coronavirus lockdown violators, who were shamed by cops for defying guidelines.Using reverse-image search on Google, we found the original photo used in an article by ABP news on March 25, 2020.Titled ‘IN PICS: Cops Shame Those Violating Lockdown By Making Them Do Sit-Ups And Hold Ears’, the article carried pictures of how police officers punished lockdown offenders.The original photo was taken on March 24, 2020 and is credited to news agency PTI.The caption given to the photo read -- “Kanpur: Police personnel punish offenders flouting lockdown guidelines, imposed in wake of coronavirus pandemic, at Chakeri area of Kanpur, Tuesday.”Times Fact Check has found the photo of men punished for violating lockdown rules has been shared with misleading claims of them being poor migrant labourers punished for going home.