BJP Rajya Sabha member and former Indian cricketer Harbhajan Singh recently re-shared a video on his official X account. Originally posted by an X user, Arshdeep Singh Saini, the clip shows two young men standing by the roadside in a seemingly disoriented state with their bodies appearing limp and their movements unusual. Sharing the video in the context of Punjab’s drug abuse problem, Singh expressed anguish, and wrote, “Very sad to see the situation of Punjab…”
Very sad to see the situation of Punjab 💔💔 . Punjab and its youth deserve better. This issue needs honesty, accountability, and urgent action—not denial. https://t.co/Vb6si8eAaj
— Harbhajan Turbanator (@harbhajan_singh) August 10, 2026
The post, published on August 10, has been viewed over 100,000 times, and shared more than a 1,000 times. (Archive)
Drug abuse remains a major issue in Punjab, which is slated to go to assembly polls in 2027. Harbhajan Singh, who switched from the AAP to the BJP in April 2026, shared the video while raising questions about accountability and the incumbent AAP government’s handling of the crisis.
Several other social media users also posted the same video with similar captions, pointing to the growing drug abuse problem in Punjab.
Click to view slideshow.Fact Check
To begin with, we noticed that Punjab Police had reshared Singh’s post mentioning that the viral video was from Sri Ganganagar, Rajasthan, and not from Punjab. The post from Punjab Police’s official handle urged users to verify facts before posting things online. (Archive)
The video being circulated is from Sri Ganganagar, Rajasthan—not Punjab—and has no connection with Punjab Police.
A Punjabi audio track does not make an incident a Punjab incident.
We urge users and social media accounts to verify the facts and location before posting… https://t.co/bNHwjXVXsC
— Punjab Police India (@PunjabPoliceInd) August 10, 2026
Mainstream news media outlets such as Times of India and India Today also fact-checked Singh’s viral claim. All the reports echoed the claim of Punjab Police and mentioned that the video was from Sri Ganganagar, Rajasthan, although no detail of the actual incident or the original video was shared.
To verify whether the video was indeed from Sri Ganganagar, we continued our investigation.
On August 13, around midnight, the Times of India published a story on its digital portal on the Sri Ganganagar zombie drug case. According to the article, Sri Ganganagar district police detained two persons who staged a scene pretending to be under the influence of the so-called “zombie drug.”
Quoting district police superintendent Hari Shankar, the Times of India article mentioned that the detained youths were Yogesh and Yoginder, who had filmed the video for Instagram.
Armed with this piece of evidence, we carried out another round of investigation and came across a Facebook post by SBT News or Sandhya Border Times News. According to this platform, the two youths were detained from Bhambhu Colony area of Sri Ganganagar city after they had filmed the video on August 7.
We then geolocated the spot to make sure the scene was indeed from Bhambhu Colony.
The viral video had three important markers which helped us to geolocate the exact spot where the 41-second-long clip was filmed.
In the video, the two youths are seen standing in front of an iron pillar with orange and black markings at its base. Such markings are commonly seen at Indian Oil petrol pumps, and the tiled flooring in the video is also typical of petrol pump premises. Tall iron pillars bearing the pump’s branding are also commonly found outside petrol stations.
The road in front of the petrol pump appears to be a two-way road, with a divider in the middle. Cars can be seen travelling on both sides of the divider, while two flags mounted on tall poles are visible on the divider. On the opposite side of the road, a vacant plot overgrown with vegetation can also be seen.
To geolocate the spot, we searched for Indian Oil petrol pumps near Bhambhu Colony in Sri Ganganagar, looking for one beside a two-way road and opposite a vacant plot with dense vegetation. We found a petrol pump that matched these features exactly.
Thus from these above findings, it is clear that the video which BJP MP Harbhajan Singh shared was not from Punjab. It is from Sri Ganganagar in Rajasthan. Besides, according to police, the two men in the video were enacting being under the influence of drugs for an Instagram reel.
This content originally appeared on Alt News and was authored by Anindya Hazra.