Fact Check: Man With Kangana Ranaut Is Not Gangster Abu Salem; Old Photo Shared On Social Media

A photo of actor and BJP's Mandi Lok Sabha seat candidate Kangana Ranaut has been doing rounds on social media, claiming the man she was sharing her space in the photo was gangster Abu Salem. A fact check established that the male found in the photo to be a journalist and that it was a photo from 2017.

New Delhi: An X (formerly Twitter) user shared a photo of actor and BJP leader Kangana Ranaut claiming the man standing with her was gangster Abu Salem. The saffron party has fielded her in Mandi Lok Sabha seat in Himachal Pradesh.

In its investigation, the Fact Check Desk found that the man in the photo was a journalist named Mark Manuel. A seven-year-old photo was shared on social media with a false claim.

Claim

An X user shared on May 28 a photo of Kangana Ranaut with a man, claiming that he was gangster Abu Salem.

The caption of the post read: “भक्तों की झाँसी की रानी ”

An English translation of the post read: “Jhansi ki Rani of bhakts”.

Here is the link and archive link to the post and below is a screenshot of the same:

Screenshot of a post showing Kangana Ranaut with a man. (PTI)

Investigation

Starting the investigation, the Desk ran the screenshot through Google Lens, and found that several users had shared the same claim.

Two such X posts can be found here and here and archive versions of the same can be found here and here respectively.

Screenshot showing two posts making false claims. (PTI)

On further scanning, the Desk came across a Facebook post shared by Mark Manuel on September 15, 2017. The post carried the same photo with a long caption.

In his post, Manuel mentioned that the photo was taken “at the Korner House in Khar some months ago. It was at a champagne brunch to celebrate Kangana’s film ‘Simran’ that releases today.”

Here is the link and archive link to the post and below is a screenshot of the same:

Facebook post made by the journalist in 2017. (PTI)

The Desk further scanned the profile of Mark Manuel and found the latter works as an Editorial Writer at HuffPost.

Here is the link to the profile and below is a screenshot of the same:

X profile of the journalist. (PTI)

Taking a cue from this, the Desk conducted a customised keyword search on Google and came across a report by the Huffpost published on September 24, 2017.

The title of the report read, “Kangana Ranaut Should Realise She's Too Talented To Milk Her Personal Life For Attention”

Here is the link to the report and below is a screenshot of the same:

A screenshot of the Huffpost report featuring Kangana Ranaut. (PTI)

In the next part of investigation, the Desk compared photo of man in the viral picture with one of Abu Salem, and found that the two had no physical or facial resemblance.

A collage showing both the journalist and the gangster. (PTI)

Subsequently, the Desk concluded that a journalist named Mark Manuel, seen in a photo with Kangana, was falsely identified as gangster Abu Salem.

CLAIM Photo of Kangana Ranaut with Abu Salem. FACT The man in the photo dating back to 2017 is journalist Mark Manuel, and not Abu Salem. CONCLUSION Several social media users shared a photo of actor and BJP leader Kangana Ranaut with a man, claiming he was gangster Abu Salem. In its investigation, the Desk found that the photo dated back to 2017 and the man standing in the viral photo was journalist Mark Manuel. The photo was shared on social media with a false claim.

Note: This copy has been published by PTI as part of Shakti Collective and has been republished by ETV Bharat.