No, This Is Not Abu Salem With Kangana Ranaut

An image of actor Kangana Ranaut with film journalist Mark Manuel has surfaced on social media with netizens misidentifying him as gangster Abu Salem.

Netizens have accused Ranaut for 'hanging out' with a gangster convicted in the 1993 Mumbai serial blasts case. Salem was one of the main conspirators of the Mumbai blasts, which claimed 257 lives and injured more than 700 people. He was sentenced to 25 years in prison after his extradition from Portugal in 2005.

Below is a Facebook post, which takes a dig at Ranaut for being photographed with Abu Salem. Click here for an archive of the post.

The image is also viral with Bengali captions ridiculing the actor for her alleged ties with the underworld. One such Facebook post reads, "This maybe Aamir Khan with Abu Salem!"

Click here for a tweet doing the rounds with the same image and narrative.

BOOM ran a reverse image search and found that the image is of Ranaut with film journalist Mark Manuel. The same image was used in an editorial piece by Manuel, for the Huffington Post in 2017 .

The photograph was shared by Manuel on his Facebook timeline in September 2017. According to the Facebook post, the image was taken at The Korner House, a dine-in restaurant in Mumbai's Khar. "It was at a champagne brunch to celebrate Kangana's film 'Simran' that releases today," an excerpt from the post reads.

Ranaut left Mumbai on September 14 after engaging in a week long war of words and spat with Shiv Sena MP Sanjay Raut and Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray. She compared Mumbai to Pakistan Occupied Kashmir (PoK) and alleged the city to be unsafe. Her row with the Shiv Sena resulted in the actor receiving a Y-category security. Later, Mumbai's municipal body Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) demolished parts of Ranaut's office for allegedly flouting construction rules. The actor moved to the Bombay High Court which stayed the demolition, hours after the civic body had started the exercise.

Also Read:Kangana-BMC Row: Tweet Claiming Amitabh Bachchan Supported BMC Is Fake