Rapper Badshah has again landed in a soup. Badshah has been summoned by the Mumbai Police to record his statement in connection with a case pertaining to fake followers on social media.
The Crime Branch of the Mumbai Police on Thursday has summoned the famous Bollywood singer and rapper in the fake social media followers case.
Badshah is the first Bollywood celebrity to be summoned by the Crime Branch.
Baadshah's Instagram account @badboyshah figured in the investigation by the Crime Intelligence Unit (CIU) and the rapper was asked to join the investigation on August 3. However, he failed to appear on the said date after which he has been asked again to appear before CIU officials on August 6.
@badboyshah has 5.8 million followers on Instagram, 2.8 million followers on Twitter.
In the investigation so far, Mumbai Police have found a few Bollywood celebrities, sports personalities, and as many as 176 top-notch people who have allegedly paid to get followers.
A few weeks back, Mumbai Police had started tracking down social media pages of high-profile personalities concerning fake and paid followers. There were reports that celebrities that Priyanka Chopra Jonas and Deepika Padukone were among the eight other top Bollywood personalities who were likely to be interrogated by the Mumbai Police. The high-profile people also include builders and sportspersons along with Bollywood celebs.
In an earlier interview, talking about the racket, Mumbai Joint Commissioner of Police Vinay Kumar Chaubey had said, "We have investigated and found as many as 54 firms involved in this racket. SIT comprising Crime Branch along with Cyber Cell has been formed which will help in investigating this case."
The matter first came to light after singer Bhoomi Trivedi's complaint to the police about a fake Instagram account which led investigators to a business based on identity theft. The imposter created a fake Instagram page of the singer and chatted with people. Moreover, the fraudster also kept the screenshot of the chats and showed it to people to increase followers.
CIU, the last month busted a racket being run where fake views and fake followers were being bought by various celebrities in violation of the Information Technology Act following which with the help of Social media experts the case probe was initiated by the CIU.