Badshah paid Rs 72 lakh to generate fake views on YouTube, say Mumbai Police; rapper denies allegations

The Mumbai Police claim that rapper Badshah had paid Rs 72 lakh to generate record number of views for his music video on YouTube. Mumbai Mirror writes that the rapper had admitted to buying 7.2 crore views for the aforementioned amount so that his new song ‘Pagal Hai’ beat the records previously set by Taylor Swift and K-pop boyband BTS. [caption id=“attachment_8688061” align=“alignnone” width=“640”] Rapper Badshah | Image from Twitter[/caption] The Crime Intelligence Unit (CIU) first began this probe after Bollywood singer Bhumi Trivedi found her fake profile on social media and notified the police. During the investigation, the police unearthed a racket which creates fake social media profiles and sells fake followers and likes to celebrities and ‘‘influencers’’. Badshah had claimed that the video for ‘Pagal Hai’ had received 75 million hits within 24 hours of its release, but the claim was rejected by Alphabet (which owns both Google and YouTube), states Mirror. Nandkumar Thakur, deputy commissioner of Mumbai Police, told the publication that other music videos shared by the rapper will also be scrutinised in the course of the investigation. Badshah had denied all allegations against him, according to Press Trust of India. “Following the summons, I have spoken to the Mumbai Police. I have aided the officials in their investigation by cooperating and carrying out the due diligence on my part. I’ve categorically denied all the allegations levelled against me and made it clear that I was never involved in such practices, nor do I condone them,” he said. (With inputs from Press Trust of India)