Mumbai Crime Branch summons rapper Badshah on Aug 20 in fake followers case

Mumbai Crime Branch's Crime Intelligence Unit (CIU) summoned rapper Badshah on August 20 in connection with social media fake followers racket case.

"During the course of investigation, it has been revealed that accused persons run the racket of creating fake identities on various social media platforms viz Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, etc. and thereby creating fake performance statistics such as fake followers, fake comments, fake views etc; in order to inflate influencers' performance statistics," read the summon by Crime Branch.

"Whereas there are reasons to believe that you are acquainted with certain facts of the matter, and Whereas there are reasons to believe that you are repeatedly attempting to derail the ongoing investigation by not attending, and Whereas there are reasons to believe that there are discrepancies in your earlier statements and factual circumstances, and you are suppressing certain material facts, And, whereas it is necessary to record your further statement in the ongoing investigation in this regard," it said.

"Therefore, you are hereby directed to remain present before the undersigned at the above-mentioned address on August 20, 2020 at 11:30 hrs, failing which you will be liable for appropriate legal action against you," it said.

On July 7, Rapper Badshah visited the Crime Branch office in Mumbai for questioning in connection with the case.

Allegedly, one of the songs of Badshah -- "Pagal hai" -- got 75 million views in a day but Google dismissed this claim. The Crime Branch wants to verify this claim made by Badshah.

The Crime Branch has sought the list of followers from Badshah. It has registered the statement of one of the complainants in the matter, Koena Mitra. In total, the Crime Branch has questioned 20 people in the matter so far.

The Home Minister has earlier directed the Mumbai Police to act tough on the fake followers case.