Social media fake followers racket: Mumbai Police summons RJ Roshan Abbas, actor Gaurav Kapoor

(Image courtesy: Instagram @roshan1970)

MUMBAI: Mumbai police issues summons to Radio Jockey Roshan Abbas and former IPL commentator cum actor Gaurav Kapoor in connection with the fake social media followers scam on Wednesday (July 29, 2020). 

Meanwhile, Pranay Swaroop, owner of Chtrbox Digital Company, recalled by the Police in the social media fake followers scam but he refused. Swaroop said he is under staffed due to the COVID-19 pandemic outbreak and also said that he did not have the documents that were requested by the Police.

On Saturday too, Pranay was called for questioning under CrPC section 160. Pranay Swaroop had said in his statement taht he has about 30,000. Today Swaroop had to hand over the list of these 30,000 clients to the Crime Branch with full profile. Along with this, the Crime Branch has also pleaded for the complete details of his company's income for the last four years.

Chtrbox is one of the leading social media influencers marketing company. Last year it was accused of leaking private date of as many as 49 million Instagram users.  

The Crime Branch has several questions regarding teh case that it wants to ask Pranay including - the number of clients mentioned in its official website as more than 3.5 lakhs, whereas he has given the figure of just 30,000 to the Crime Branch which is almost 10% of what's mentioned on the website.

Also, the Police wants to know how the rate of influencers has increased. and how are the rates fixed.

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. 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.

This social media scam came to light after Bollywood singer Bhumi Trivedi found a fake profile of hers on social media. She lodged the complaint and took police assistance. An investigation was launched and the police suspects manually or BOT tool has been used.

Earlier, a person named Abhishek Dinesh Daude was arrested by the Mumbai Police's Criminal Intelligence Unit (CIU) in connection with the case. The cops suspect international social media marketing company named 'www.followerskart.com' being involved in the scam.