Sushant Singh Rajput death: Mumbai Police registers two FIR’s against trolls

Mumbai Police has registered a first information report (FIR) against those who created fake accounts on social media to troll Mumbai Police commissioner and orchestrated

Mumbai Police has registered a first information report (FIR) against those who created fake accounts on social media to troll Mumbai Police commissioner and orchestrated a campaign to discredit Mumbai Police and Maharashtra government over the investigation into the death of actor Sushant Singh Rajput.

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At least 80,000 fake social media accounts were created across nine countries as part of an orchestrated campaign, a report by the force’s cyber unit had stated. “Several social media account holders are trolling the Mumbai Police commissioner on different platforms like Twitter, Instagram and Facebook and are using abusive language against him and the force. Hence, an FIR has been registered against those account holders under 67 of the Information Technology (IT) Act. Most of these accounts are fake and we will be taking action against all those account holders,” said deputy commissioner of police (Cyber), Rashmi Karandikar.

“Another FIR has been registered against the culprit who used a morphed image of the official Twitter account of Mumbai Police commissioner recently. We have started the probe in both matters,” added Karandikar.

The internal report, submitted by the unit to city police commissioner Param Bir Singh, said it found posts were uploaded on social media platforms from different countries, including Italy, Japan, Poland, Slovenia, Indonesia, Turkey, Thailand, Romania and France.

Singh has now issued an order asking joint commissioner of police (crime) Milind Bharambe to monitor the probe and has also sanctioned additional manpower for the cyber unit.

Singh, on Wednesday, said, “We have written to Twitter, Facebook and Instagram, and sought the detailed report of such fake accounts. Once we procure details, we will start taking action against those who are behind this act.”

“There are many fake accounts and for that analysis, the unit needs more manpower as I have asked Bharambe to monitor and provide manpower as much as they need for their investigation,” Singh said.

“The campaign was run against Mumbai Police to demoralise us at a time when 84 personnel had died due to the pandemic and over 6,000 were infected with Covid-19. This was a motivated campaign with a vested interest to malign the image of Mumbai Police and derail our line of investigation,” Singh had said.

He added that all found violating the law would be prosecuted under relevant sections of the IT Act. “Multiple fake accounts on social media were created to target Mumbai Police in abusive tones,” he added.

Rajput, 34, was found dead in his Mumbai home on June 14, setting off speculation about the cause of death. Mumbai Police called several members of the film industry for questioning before the actor’s family filed a police complaint in Bihar alleging a conspiracy behind the death and blamed his girlfriend, actor Rhea Chakraborty, and her family.

The case is being probed by several agencies, including the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), the Enforcement Directorate (ED) and the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB). Chakraborty, her brother Showik and some other associates are currently in jail on drug charges.

The cyber unit’s report revelation came days after a medical team from the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) ruled out the possibility of murder in the case – a development the Maharashtra government claimed as a vindication of its stand in the sensitive case.

“We had investigated this case very professionally. The CBI had set up a panel of AIIMS doctors who have justified our investigation, the findings of Cooper Hospital and the forensic laboratory. Except for a few people, nobody else was aware of our investigation, but still, many have criticised it,” Singh had said.