Ex-Twitter India chief asks Elon Musk: 'How did Sushant Singh Rajput verify his phone number?'

Screengrab of late actor Sushant Singh Rajput's Twitter account. (Image credit: @manishm/Twitter)

Last week, one of the Twitter personalities who abruptly received blue verification ticks on their profiles was the late Bollywood actor Sushant Singh Rajput. While many celebrities have openly asked Twitter how they were granted the blue ticks when they had not subscribed to it, the former Twitter chief in India spotted that not only Sushant Singh Rajput's account but even his phone number was verified recently.

Manish Maheshwari on Wednesday tweeted, "Wondering how Sushant Singh Rajput verified his phone number, Elon Musk? Either you are lying or people have figured out a way to carry their phone in the afterlife." The actor had died by suicide on June 14, 2020.

Wondering how @itsSSR verified his phone number @elonmusk? Either you are lying or people have figured out a way to carry their phone in afterlife. pic.twitter.com/QENiHCLjPp

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— Manish Maheshwari (@manishm) April 26, 2023

Read more: Sushant Singh Rajput's dog Fudge has died, says actor's sister. Twitter extends condolences

While Elon Musk has not responded to the tweet, this is not the only case of a late celebrity's account resurfacing with the blue ticks. Basketball player Kobe Bryant and Black Panther star Chadwick Boseman's accounts also bore the verification mark.

Later, it emerged that the social networking platform had decided to restore the coveted blue tick for many of them for free if they had a follower count of one million or more. The action was performed even if some or all of them had not paid for subscriptions.

A few eminent Indian personalities who got their blue check marks back included Sachin Tendulkar, Shah Rukh Khan, and Amitabh Bachchan, among others.

Last week, Twitter had removed the legacy blue checkmarks from several accounts, ranging from government, celebrities, business leaders, and politicians egging users to take a Twitter Blue subscription which in India is priced at Rs 650 per month on computers and Rs 900 on mobiles for individual user accounts.

Read more: India among top 4 countries to ask Twitter to remove content, request user data: Report