Fake News Alert: Morphed Rahul Gandhi Tweet Calling Sushant Singh Rajput 'Cricketer' Goes Viral

Film fraternity, politicians, friends, and fans on Sunday grieved the demise of popular actor Sushant Singh Rajput who was found dead in his Bandra residence in Mumbai. He was 34.

Congressman Rahul Gandhi alongside PM Narendra Modi and Arvind Kejriwal expressed sorrow over the passing of the Bollywood actor who had starred in films like Kai Po Che!, Shuddh Desi Romance, MS Dhoni: The Untold Story, Chhichhore.

Following this, a screenshot of Gandhi's purported tweet mentioning Singh as "young and talented cricketer" instead of "actor" started doing the rounds of social media.

Closer analysis, however, reveals that the misinformed tweet was, in fact, fake. It seems the ever-growing fake news factory found Gandhi's tweet and morphed it to malign and troll the Congress leader.

A quick look at Gandhi's Twitter profile debunked the fake screengrab viral on social media.

Gandhi, in his original tweet, wrote: "I am sorry to hear about the passing of #SushantSinghRajput. A young & talented actor, gone too soon. My condolences to his family, friends & fans across the world."

The fake edits became apparent after an analysis of the tweet-screenshot which revealed a visibly different font being used as opposed to the original tweet even as the timestamp of both posts remained the same.

This, however, isn't the first time Gandhi has found himself being unwittingly featured in a viral fake tweet.

"Schools and colleges should reopen from 1st June on odd/even basis. Odd days teachers will come and even days, students will come," a tweet purportedly put out by Gandhi made headlines.

Later fact-checks debunked the claim after it turned out that Gandhi had made no such statement.

MS Dhoni: The Untold Story remains a highlight in Singh's career. In the movie, the actor "turned" cricketer Dhoni to portray the role of former Indian Team captain and heaped praises for his role.

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