It started, like these things always do, with a video that felt just convincing enough.
Rajpal Yadav, palms pressed together, eyes soft, thanking Salman Khan and calling him his elder brother. The clip moved fast across timelines. Reels. WhatsApp forwards. Breathless captions claiming Salman had stepped in, cleared the debt, and pulled him out of Tihar Jail. The internet loves a rescue story, especially one starring two familiar faces.
But the truth is quieter than that.
As of February 16, 2026, Rajpal Yadav is still inside Tihar Jail.
The video everyone is passing around is not new. It is from 2018. Back then, Rajpal was speaking to reporters after Salman Khan was granted bail in the Blackbuck poaching case. He was expressing support, gratitude, and solidarity. It was about Salman’s legal moment, not his own. Somewhere along the way, someone trimmed the clip, stripped away the context, and handed it a new storyline. And just like that, fiction started trending as fact.
It is strange how quickly we want to believe that influence can fix everything. Especially in Bollywood.
Rajpal surrendered at Tihar on February 5 to serve a six-month sentence linked to a ₹9 crore cheque bounce case that dates all the way back to 2010. This is not a sudden storm. It is a case that has followed him for years, resurfacing in courtrooms, adjourned, and argued over. On February 12, during the last hearing at the Delhi High Court, the judges reportedly made it clear they were not amused. He was in jail, they noted, because he had failed to honor multiple commitments to repay the complainant. It was not a misunderstanding. It was about repeated promises that did not materialize.
Behind the headlines, there is a family holding its breath.
Radha Yadav, his wife, spoke to Bombay Times and other outlets this week, and there was something steady about her tone. No dramatics. No defensive outrage. Just facts. As of this morning, she said, Rajpal remains in custody. The viral narrative is simply not true.
She did confirm what many suspected, that people from the industry have reached out. Salman Khan. Ajay Devgn. Sonu Sood. There has been support. Emotional and financial. But she declined to name specific contributors or amounts. You could almost hear the line she was drawing, gratitude on one side, privacy on the other.
She also said he is “okay.” Two small words that carry a lot when someone you love is behind bars.
Meanwhile, there have been visible gestures. Sonu Sood publicly offered Rajpal a role in his upcoming film and reportedly provided a signing amount in advance to help ease the financial pressure. Mika Singh pledged ₹11 lakh. Tej Pratap Yadav announced ₹11 lakh in assistance as well. These are not insignificant gestures. They signal that Rajpal is not alone in this.
But here is the uncomfortable part. Support does not override a court order.
According to his lawyer, Bhaskar Upadhyay, ₹2.5 crore of the ₹9 crore has been repaid so far. That leaves a substantial amount outstanding. The legal system is rarely swayed by sentiment or nostalgia, and Rajpal’s career, however beloved, does not exempt him from that.
Today’s bail hearing at the Delhi High Court is crucial. There is also a request for interim bail so he can attend a family wedding in Shahjahanpur later this month. A wedding. Of all things. The kind of event where chairs are counted, plates are set, and someone important feels missing if they are not there. You cannot help but picture that space.
Maybe that is why the internet clung so tightly to the viral clip. It offered closure. It suggested that Salman Khan had already stepped in and solved the problem, that brotherhood had prevailed, that the story had a neat, satisfying ending.
But life, especially legal life, rarely works that way.
Rajpal Yadav has spent decades making people laugh. He built a career out of elastic expressions, sharp comic timing, and that unmistakable voice that could turn a small role into a scene-stealer. For many fans, seeing his name attached to court proceedings instead of film releases feels disorienting.
And yet, this is where the story stands today. No secret release. No dramatic intervention. Just a man serving a sentence, a family navigating public scrutiny, partial payments made, and a court deciding what comes next.
The viral video will probably keep circulating. It is easier to share than to verify. But the reality is simpler and heavier.
Rajpal is still in Tihar. The debt is not fully cleared. The hearing today may shift the course, or it may not. Until then, the rest is just noise.
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Zayn blends critical thinking with genuine fandom. Whether it’s decoding OTT series arcs or rating the latest Bollywood blockbuster, he writes with clarity, pop fluency, and a dash of irreverence.
