Cyber experts have found over 1.5 lakh Twitter accounts used to defame the Maharashtra government, the Mumbai police, and Mumbai Police Commissioner Parambir Singh, including fake accounts and those being handled by BOTS, the Maharashtra Police said in a press release on Tuesday, 3 November.
The police also said that many of these accounts have also been found to be operated from other countries.
“Immediately post the death of Mr Sushant Singh Rajput, an established and famous Bollywood Actor (14th June 2020), many new twitter accounts were surfaced and started trending negative sentiments against the prestigious establishment like the Government of Maharashtra, Mumbai Police, and they even started maligning dignified personalities like Commissioner of Police, Mumbai. Primarily, the count of Twitter accounts, which were surfaced and were responsible for negative trending, was absolutely shocking - almost lacs of Twitter account,” the police said in the statement.
The statement further said that they had found more than 1.5 lakhs Twitter accounts, 80 percent of which were suspicious in nature.
The police said that hastags and mentions like @Officeof UT, @AUThackeray, #BabyPenguin, #SanjayRaut, #SSR, #JusticeforSSR, #ParamBirScam, #ParamBirSinghResign, #RepublicExposesParamBir and #TRPScam among others were investigated.
It said that the matter is being further investigated with the help of Mumbai Cyber Cell and a team of cyber experts.
The development comes as politics over the Mumbai Police’s handling of the Sushant Singh Rajput case and the state government as well as the police’s tussle with Republic TV refuses to die down.
While the Mumbai Police is currently probing the alleged TRP Scam, in which Republic TV, Box Cinema and Fakt Marathi have been named, along with a few other channels, the case of Rajput’s death has been handed over to the CBI.
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