Key points :
- Over 80,000 fake social media accounts have been identified that were created to ‘discredit’ the Mumbai police force.
- The Police have said that they have information that the accounts were operational within India and abroad.
- The cyber cell is conducting an investigation into the matter and various social media platforms have been ‘summoned’ to provide details.
It has recently come to light that in the wake of the death of Bollywood actor Sushant Singh Rajput, over 80,000 fake accounts were created in order to abuse and discredit the Mumbai Police’s probe into the case. Mumbai Police Commissioner has stated that the cyber cell is investigating the matter.
Speaking to Hindustan Times, a senior IPS Officer was quotes as saying, “We identified the posts in foreign languages because of the hashtags used like ‘#justiceforsushant’, ‘#sushantsinghrajput’ and ‘#SSR’. We’re in the process of verifying more accounts.”
Mumbai Police’s cyber unit has reported that it has been found that these posts were shared on social media platforms from different countries like Italy, Japan, Poland, Slovenia, Indonesia, Turkey, Thailand, Romania and France.
In conversation with Zee News, Mumbai police commissioner Param Bir Singh announced, “We also wanted justice for Sushant and everyone else too, but we found out that fake accounts were created on social media to discredit and troll Mumbai police. These accounts were used with the intent of discrediting and influencing the investigation as well.”
He expressed his stand on the matter saying, “All of this at the time of pandemic when several of my officers succumbed to COVID-19 and thousands were battling it, why all of this was done to demoralise the Mumbai police, I can’t understand. It was a game-plan.”
The top cop also announced that an investigation into the matter was being carried out by the cyber cell and that they are in touch with various social media platforms in order to get to the bottom of the matter.
“Our cyber cell is conducting a thorough investigation into this matter and all those found violating the law will be prosecuted under relevant sections of the Information Technology Act.”, he said.
This comes at a time when a latest AIIMS report submitted to the CBI rules out murder and hints at suicide being the cause of Sushant’s death. Actor Sushant Singh Rajput was found dead in his Bandra apartment in Mumbai on June 14, 2020. The actor’s death is still under investigation by the CBI, Narcotics Bureau and the Directorate of Enforcement, all probing the case from different angles
