Actor Disha Patani’s photo with Aditya Thackeray shared as ‘Rhea Chakraborty’

The death of actor Sushant Singh Rajput has gained such prominence that India’s ascent to the first position in the daily number of COVID cases reported worldwide has taken a back seat. From Black magic, underworld links to despicable reporting, there seems to be no end to speculations and discussions on television channels and social media alike.

In between all the noise, a new theory has received special attention on social media. A picture is being shared of two people sitting in a car — on the driver’s seat is Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray’s son and Maharashtra MLA Aditya Thackeray while an unidentified woman is seated on the passenger seat. The picture was tweeted by a parody account of Republic TV’s managing director and editor-in-chief Arnab Goswami with the claim that Aditya Thackeray and Rhea Chakraborty have been roaming together which is why a CBI probe on Rajput’s suicide is yet to be initiated. The tweet has been liked by over 14,000 users.

जब उद्धव ठाकरे का बेटा #सुशान्त_सिंह की गर्ल फ्रेंड #रिया_चक्रवर्ती के साथ घुम रहा है तब कहा से सुशांत सिंह की हत्या की #CBI जांच होगी 🤔😠👇 pic.twitter.com/qCr5QSXLmt

— Arnab Goswami (@arnab5222) August 1, 2020

The picture has been shared to raise doubts about the police investigation. It is important to note here that Rhea Chakraborty is being blamed both by mainstream media and social media for Rajput’s alleged mental illness. The same picture and claim have been tweeted from the parody account of Nita Ambani which has received more than 4,300 likes.

#AnkitaSpeaksToArnab इस फोटो को गौर से देखिए कहीं इस कारण से शिवसेना रीया चक्रवर्ती को तो नहीं बचा रही है।इस फोटो में शिवसेना प्रमुख उद्धव ठाकरे के बेटे के साथ रीया नजर आरहीहै ? pic.twitter.com/gRsLtcvqNU

— Nita Ambani ™ (@0Nita_ji) August 1, 2020

Another tweet by @Krishna29892392 also makes the same claim which has been liked by over 1,000 users. The picture and the claim have gone viral on Facebook as well.

The woman in the picture is not Rhea Chakraborty

The fact-check for this claim is pretty simple. If one carefully notices the photograph, one can spot that the woman seated beside Aditya Thackeray is actor Disha Patani. A reverse-image search on Google also picks up the same.

The picture was featured in a video report published by The Times of India’s entertainment section, E-Times, dated March 11, 2019, where it has reported that “Aditya Thackeray and Disha Patani went on a lunch date’’. You can see the screenshot of this below where the picture in question is visible.

A video of this event was uploaded on YouTube on March 11, 2019.

Note: This report does not intend to make any claims about the personal relationship between Aditya Thackeray and Disha Patani. Alt News requests readers to be mindful about celebrities’ private lives. The only information that this article has verified is that Disha Patani was misidentified as Rhea Chakraborty in the viral photograph which was wrongly linked with Sushant Singh Rajput’s death.