Mumbai police has summoned singer Badshah on August 20 for questioning.
Mumbai police has summoned singer Badshah on August 20 for questioning in connection with fake followers case.
The summon, issued by Mumbai police's crime branch, read, "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.
The crime branch, in its document, said that there were reasons to believe that Badshah was "attempting to derail" the investigation.
"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.
One of Badshah's song -- "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, Koena Mitra, in the matter. 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.