Fake Alert: That’s Not Disha Salian With Sooraj Pancholi

One month on, the conspiracy theories around Sushant Singh Rajput’s death have refused to die down.

After Sooraj Pancholi clarified that “he had never met Disha Salian” several images claiming that he was photographed with Disha, Sushant’s ex-manger, started doing the rounds on social media.

(Photo: Altered by The Quint)

Many conspiracy theories have been woven around the death of actor Sushant Singh Rajput and his ex-manager Disha Salian. The most recent one links actor Sooraj Pancholi with the duo.

Several users on the internet shared pictures of Pancholi with his friends, identifying one of them as Salian, to counter the claim that he didn't know her. However, we found that the images are not of Salian but Pancholi’s friend, Anushri Gaur.

THE CLAIM

The claims surfaced on the internet after Pancholi clarified that “he had never met Disha Salian”. Several users then shared these pictures and questioned Pancholi.

An archived version of the tweet can be accessed here.(Source: Twitter/Screenshot)

An archived version of the tweet can be accessed here.(Source: Twitter/Screenshot)

An archived version of the post can be accessed here.(Source: Facebook/Screenshot)

An archived version of the page can be accessed here.(Source: Facebook/Screenshot)

WHAT WE FOUND

We found that the person who can be seen with Sooraj Pancholi in the first image is his friend, Anushri Gaur, while in the second image the actor has been clicked with designer Sonaakshi Raaj.

IMAGE 1

On 5 August, the actor took to Instagram to refute claims by the media that he was photographed with Disha Salian, and said the person in the photograph is his friend Anushri Gaur.

“Is this the media we are supposed to trust?? That girl in the picture which was clicked in 2016 is not Disha Salian; that is my friend Anushri Gaur who doesn’t even live in India,” he wrote.

Replying to Sooraj’s Instagram post, Anushri Gaur wrote, “Thanks for posting the truth.”

(Source: Instagram/Screenshot)

We compared the viral image with the images of Anushri Gaur and Disha Salian and found that the person in the viral image is indeed Pancholi’s friend Anushri Gaur.

Viral Image (L), Anushri Gaur (C), Disha Salian (R)(Photo: Altered by The Quint)

IMAGE 2

(Source: Facebook/Screenshot)

We conducted a reverse image search on Google and were directed to an Instagram post which pointed out that the woman in the picture, alongside Sooraj Pancholi and Kiara Advani, is designer Sonaakshi Raaj Merani.

Next, we searched for Sonaakshi Raaj Merani on Google and found several news reports which carried her image.

(Photo: Altered by The Quint)

Evidently, old images of Sooraj Pancholi with multiple people are being shared on social media to fuel the theory that he was linked to Sushant’s ex-manager Disha Salian.

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