Rapper Badshah Questioned by Crime Branch in Fake Social Media Followers Racket Case

On Friday, rapper Badshah arrived at Crime Branch office in Mumbai to be questioned in the fake social media followers racket case. He appeared before the investigating officials on Thursday as well. A total of 20 people have questioned so far.

Badshah arrived at the location on Friday wearing a baggy blue shirt and black lowers. He covered his face with breathing mask amid the coronavirus scare.

Earlier, on July 14, the Mumbai Police had busted an international racket involving creation of fake profiles on social media and other fraudulent activities in social media marketing business, and nabbed one person in this connection.

Investigations revealed that the accused is part of a larger global fraud racket which involves creating crores of fake identities on various social media platforms and making fake performance statistics like fake followers, fake comments, fake views etc, to inflate the influencers' performance statistics.

Mumbai Police Commissioner Param Bir Singh said that this is the first time such a racket with international ramifications has been busted in the country, and such fake profiles and followers are also being used to create rumours and panic in the society.

The lid the mega-scam was blown off following a complaint by Bollywood playback singer Bhoomi Trivedi, who approached police in July, demanding action after some unknown person/s purportedly created her fake profile on Instagram and how they were approaching other film personalities to create such profiles for them.

Reportedly, Priyanka Chopra Jonas and Deepika Padukone may also be summoned in the case.

Read: Deepika Padukone, Priyanka Chopra to be Questioned by Police on Fake Social Media Followers Scam?

(With inputs from IANS)