Fact Check: Man seen with Amitabh Bachchan in viral photo is Cong leader Ashok Chavan not Dawood Ibrahim
By Mounika Dasari Published on 18 Sep 2020 2:30 PM GMT
Hyderabad: A photograph of Amitabh Bachchan shaking hands with a man who is allegedly Dawood Ibrahim, India's most wanted terrorist, has gone viral on Facebook.
A Facebook user posted the photo along with a caption in Hindi that translates to, "An old photo of Dawood Ibrahim and Amitabh Bachchan has now been released due to which Jaya Bachchan has reacted so strongly to the Bollywood drugs connection. Shame on Amitabh Bachhan!"
The Mumbai police have recently beefed up security at Amitabh Bachchan's bungalow Jalsa.
This comes after the actor's wife and MP Jaya Bachchan had taken a dig at actress Kangana Ranaut in the Parliament who, in a tweet, had called the film industry a "gutter". Since then, not only Jaya but her entire family have been targeted by Kangana's supporters.
Fact Check:
The claim is FALSE.
The man seen with Amitabh Bachchan in the viral photo is former Maharashtra Chief Minister and the state's current PWD minister and well-known Congress leader Ashok Chavan. This photo was taken during the inauguration of a bridge in Mumbai in 2010.
NewsMeter performed a reverse image search and found that the photo had been published by The Times of India on 25 March 2010. According to the caption, the photo shows Ashok Chavan with Amitabh Bachchan at the commissioning ceremony of Rajiv Gandhi Sea Link.
Hence, the claim that the viral photo shows Amitabh Bachchan with India's most wanted terrorist Dawood Ibrahim is FALSE. The man seen alongside the actor is Maharashtra PWD minister Ashok Chavan and the photo was taken in 2010.
