The Mumbai police crime branch has filed a 446-page chargesheet against Bollywood rapper-songwriter Aditya Prateek Singh Sisodia aka Badshah in the year-old fake social media followers racket, reports Mid-Day. In the chargesheet, the police have reportedly said that the rapper had paid Rs 74 lakhs to buy 72 lakh views for his music video.
The statement of the techie, who assisted the celebrity in inflating views on social media sites, is also included in the chargesheet. He is reported to have stated that nothing he did was illegal. He, in turn, questioned why no action is being taken against the celebrities who paid for the scam.
Rapper Badshah confesses to buying fake views and likes of his videos
Last year, in the month of July, Mumbai police unearthed the fake-followers scam. In August, following three days of questioning, rapper Badshah had confessed to the police that he had paid Rs 75 lakh in a bid to break a viewership record of his music video.
The singer had confessed that he had purchased around views for Rs 75 lakh, in order to set a world record for most YouTube views in the first 24 hours. The singer had claimed that the music video for ‘Pagal Hai’ had been watched 75 million times on the first day of its release, beating other previous records.
Mumbai police busts fake social media followers racket
The Mumbai police crime branch, had in July last year, busted the fake social media followers racket and discovered that a number of celebrities had ‘bought’ fake followers. It was revealed that more than 50 companies were involved in selling social media followers, likes and comments. Besides, there were 175 other high-profile stars who had allegedly paid to gain fake followers on social media.
The racket came to light after Bhumi Trivedi discovered a fake profile of hers online. Following this, on 14th July, the Central Intelligence Unit (CIU) of the crime branch arrested one Abhishek Davade who provided such services. The 21-year-old service provider was using bots or fake profiles to increase the engagement of his clients. To provide such services, Davade was using more than 170 accounts in which he allegedly added more than five lakh followers to make them look genuine.
