A screengrab of Bollywood actor Ali Fazal’s tweet related to protests is doing the rounds on  social media with a picture of a dead body submerged in a drain. Several social media users are urging people to boycott the upcoming web series, Mirzapur 2, since actor Ali Fazal is a part of the show.
The Facebook post read, “Shuru anjane mei kiye the abb boycott karne mei mazza aa raha hai. Mirzapur ke tumhare guddu bhaiya character ki MKB. Never forget, never forgive. #BoycottMirzapur2 #AliFazal”
Ali Fazal Twitter post read, “PROTESTS: SHURU MAJBOORI MEIN KIYE THHEY, AB MAJA AA RAHA HAI!!”

Other similar posts were seen here, here and here.

FACT CHECK

NewsMobile fact-checked the above post and found it to be morphed, old and misleading.
We got our first clue when we saw the comment on the post calling out the fake news. Moreover, another user claimed that the picture is edited.

We also found another social media post asking people to boycott Mirzapur 2. We saw the screengrab of the same tweet but the date mentioned in it is December 20, 2019, which gave us another clue that the post is old.

On digging further, we found a tweet by politician Ramesh Solanki dated December 20, 2019.
The tweet read, “Yeh hai inka asli chehra aur jab pichwada suj jaayega toh victimcard khelege Jis thali mein khate ho ussi thali ko ganda karte ho Shame on you @alifazal9
Dear @ashokepandit @vivekagnihotri any action against this anti-national? #IndiaSupportsCAA ”
(Translation: This is their real face, they always play the role of victim whenever they get beaten up by someone. They bite the very hands which feeds them.)

Further below, in a Twitter thread, Ramesh Solanki posted the screengrab of Ali Fazal’s deleted post.  In reply, Ali Fazal claimed that he had to delete the post because some people misinterpret things and exaggerate.
Ali Fazal reply read, “Nai actually, like many other things, the bigots mislead. They wont mislead me but the janta sometimes is vulnerable. Aur masala daalne mein toh maahir hain sab. Wont let ppl fall for that. Not on my timeline. Toh tum jheete? Correct? Ok”

The archive version of Ali Fazal’s tweet can be seen here. The tweet was posted on December 19, 2019, and we can see that no picture is attached to the tweet.

Furthermore, we then cropped the Facebook picture and ran the picture of the dead body submerged in drain, through Google Reverse Image Search. We found the same picture in a news article by Organiser dated February 28, 2020, claiming that it is the dead body of Ankit Sharma, an IB Constable, who was killed during Delhi riots.

We also found the same picture on the photo gallery of India Today as well, claiming that the body of 26-year-old Ankit Sharma was recovered, who was found dead in a drain in Chand Bagh area of North Delhi.

Hence, the above fact check proves that the old tweet of actor Ali Fazal is morphed and falsely shared as a recent. Don’t fall for misleading claims as it can mislead the masses.

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