IANS
Around 80,000-100,000 fake accounts were created on various social media platforms after Bollywood actor Sushant Singh Rajput’s death June 14 and some are allegedly being shut down now, according to Mumbai police sources.
Cyber Cell deputy commissioner of police Rashmi Karandikar said that several social media account holders were trolling Mumbai police commissioner Param Bir Singh on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook using abusive language against him and the police force.
“Most of these accounts are fake… We will be taking action against all these fake account holders. Last month, another FIR was registered against a culprit who used a morphed image of the official Twitter account of the city police commissioner,” Karandikar said, adding a probe is underway in both.
The developments came around 110 days after Sushant Singh’s death, coinciding with the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) report that has ruled out all speculation alleging the actor was murdered.
The AIIMS report was widely welcomed by Maharshtra’s ruling Maha Vikas Aghadi constituents Shiv Sena-Nationalist Congress Party and the Congress party, who decried the manner in which “the state government and Mumbai police were sought to be maligned” in the matter.
“We are not at all surprised by this… It was also the finding of the Cooper Hospital team,” Singh reacted to the AIIMS conclusions.
Maharashtra’s ruling coalition partners have demanded a special investigation into the trolling.
As per the cyber police’s preliminary analysis, the slanderous or abusive posts were uploaded from India and even several countries in Europe, Scandinavia, Southeast Asia and other global locations targeting the Mumbai police.
Congress Spokesperson Sachin Sawant and Shiv Sena leader Kishore Tiwari have lauded the police initiative for probing the social media menace that was encountered in the past nearly four months since the actor’s death.
“I welcome the decision… Soon I will share very crucial information on this with the government on the social media accounts which were solely generated by the BJP IT Team to promote the ‘conspiracy theory’ in the Sushant Singh case and defame Maharashtra,” Sawant said in a statement.
Tiwari said that the social media posts were “directly interfering” with the investigations of Mumbai police, and later the federal agencies CBI, ED and NCB, besides the country’s judicial processes, and the cyber police must act accordingly.
“There were blatantly fake expert opinions, imaginary scenarios concocted, and some television channels also promoted such frauds on their talk shows… However, the Sushant Singh murder theory has fallen flat, while the so-called ‘morgue visit’ by Rhea Chakraborty has disappeared into thin air,” Tiwari told IANS.
The police are confident of making a few arrests in the cases which could attract a jail sentence of up to five years.
