Adding to the number of speculations related to Shushant Singh Rajput's tragic death and discussions about Bollywood mafias, an image started doing rounds on Facebook. 

 The widely circulated image shows Deepika Padukone, her husband, and actor Ranveer Singh, and Rajput's friend and filmmaker Sandip Singh, along with two other men, is going viral. The group is seen sitting around a table full of food items. It is being claimed that one of the men is fugitive underworld don, Dawood Ibrahim.

Facebook page "Sushant Justice" posted the image in which a person's presence is highlighted along with the caption, "See my friend see... Dipika Ranveer Sandip and "Mahesh Shetty if I am not wrong" with Dawood... Thanks to our group member for this photo..."

A film producer and Shushant's friend Sandip Singh has also come under criticism and on CBI's radar since it intensified its probe into the case for his "inconsistent statements" on Rajput's death. He was apparently one of the first people to have arrived at the scene of Rajput's death on June 14. Mahesh Shetty is a TV actor and close friend of Rajput.

The truth behind the claim 

In our investigation, we found this claim to be false. The man in question is not Dawood Ibrahim. 

With the help of reverse image search, we found this image used by entertainment news website Pinkvilla in an article in August 2013 and wrote that it was clicked during an Iftar party on the sets of "Goliyon Ki Raasleela Ram Leela" in Mumbai. Bhansali was the director of the movie. The uncropped picture also shows film director Sanjay Leela Bhansali at the table.

Sandip Ssingh also shared this picture on his Instagram profile on May 17. He captioned it, "#Iftar is the time of huge blessings, try to gather as many as you can... Breaking bread together since 2013." Sandip was one of the producers of "Ram Leela". Sandip in his post also tagged the persons present in the photo, which suggests that the person sitting next to him is Wasiq Khan, whom netizens suspected to be Dawood.

Wasiq Khan is an art director who worked in many Bollywood films including "Ram Leela" and "Gangs of Wasseypur". His pictures on his Facebook profile makes it clear that the man encircled in the viral picture is him.

After the image went viral, Wasiq Khan himself put out a clarification that the man in the image is him, and not Dawood Ibrahim. He wrote, "Dear Netizens/section of over-enthusiastic media, Recently this photograph is going viral and a section of media and social media enthusiasts are busy in identifying the encircled man. Friends, this is me and my name is not Dawood Ibrahim. I am Wasiq Khan, a poor production designer working in the film industry since a long. The photograph was taken during an Iftaar party in 2012.... As a responsible citizen and a member of film fraternity, I am deeply anguished and sad with the unnatural death of Sushant Singh Rajput. However, I feel assured that CBI shall do an impartial and fair investigation and the departed soul shall get justice. My prayers are with him."

Therefore, the claim along with the viral picture is misleading. The man encircled in the picture, sitting along with Deepika and Ranveer, is Wasiq Khan and not Dawood Ibrahim.