New Delhi: After Bollywood rapper Badshah was summoned by the Mumbai Crime Branch for last two days regarding the fake social media followers, he has reportedly confessed to having paid a whopping amount of Rs 75 lakh for his single ‘Pagal Hai’. He previously had claimed that the song garnered 7.5 crore views in a day, making a world record. However, Google denied the tall claim.
Today, the rapper reportedly revealed that he indeed paid Rs 75 lakh amount to an agency to increase his fake followers on the song. He has again been summoned on Sunday (August 9, 2020).
Meanwhile, Chtrbox, one of the leading social media influencers marketing company was last year accused of leaking private data of as many as 49 million Instagram users.
Chtrbox CEO, Pranay Swarup might also be in the radar. The company is one of its popular tools Boombox has included names such as Virat Kohli, Priyanka Chopra and Badshah as its clients. However, incidentally, after Badshah was quizzed, his profile has been removed.
According to the crime branch sources, many of the celeb profiles included in the company’s client list is fake. In his statement to the crime branch, Swarup said he has a monthly earning of Rs 9 crore and boasts of having 30,000 clientele.
The crime branch has sought a list of all his followers from the rapper. Badshah happens to be the first Bollywood celebrity to be summoned by the crime branch in relation to the fake followers’ scam.
Sometime back, the Mumbai police had busted the social media fake followers racket and several Bollywood celebrities, sports personalities and some high profile builders were alleged to be guilty of buying followers.
The matter came to light after Bollywood singer Bhumi Trivedi found a fake profile of hers on social media.
In the investigation so far, Mumbai Police have found a few Bollywood celebrities, sports personalities and as many as 176 high profile people who have allegedly paid to get followers.
