"As many as 54 firms involved in this racket."
Two of Bollywood’s most popular actresses, Deepika Padukone and Priyanka Chopra Jonas are reportedly going to be questioned by Mumbai Police.
Deepika and Priyanka are certainly two of the most successful actresses and their popularity is evident with their large number of fan followings on social media.
Deepika Padukone boasts a staggering 50.8 million followers on Instagram while Priyanka Chopra has 55.2 million followers on the popular site.
On Twitter, Deepika has 27.6 million followers with Priyanka is close behind at 26.3 million followers.
For quite some time, the Mumbai Police has been inspecting a case related to paid and fake social media followers.
According to the latest reports in Times Now, the police are considering Deepika’s and Priyanka’s large fan followings.
It is believed the actresses are amongst ten other celebrities who have fake social media followers. The report read:
“Mumbai Police have found out that there are various studies done by various well-known organisations which have found out that Deepika Padukone and Priyanka Chopra are among top 10 celebrities who have fake followers.”
Speaking about the investigation, Mumbai Joint Commissioner of Police, Vinay Kumar Chaubey said:
“We have investigated and found as many as 54 firms involved in this racket. SIT comprising Crime Branch along with Cyber Cell has been formed which will help in investigating this case.”
Recently, the police arrested an imposter who was posing as Bollywood singer Bhoomi Trivedi’s manager.
The man in question was identified as Abhishek Dinesh Daude.
He claimed to be handling the singer’s social media accounts. Not only that, but he also contacted other stars claiming he could help increase their social media followings.
As a result of this, the Mumbai Police arrested the accused. This arrest led them to the realisation that this scam is operating on a large scale.
To take action against this scam, SIT members of the crime branch and cyber cell were informed.
They discovered approximately 100 companies are selling fake social media followers.
They even identified 68 companies selling fake social media activities such as likes, views, retweets, subscriptions, comments and much more.
Alongside Deepika Padukone and Priyanka Chopra, about 176 other celebrities from various domains like sports and politics are under the radar.
It has been claimed that they have paid money to get more followers on their accounts.
Currently, the investigation is ongoing.