Sushant Singh Rajput case: Mumbai cops to probe Congress plaint of Twitter campaign against Maharashtra government

MUMBAI: The Congress in Maharashtra on Wednesday requested Mumbai police commissioner Param Bir Singh to investigate what it called a "BJP-driven social media terrorism" aimed at defaming the state government and police in connection with actor Sushant Singh Rajput's death case.

A senior police officer later said they are conducting an inquiry after state Congress spokesperson Sachin Sawant submitted a complaint in this regard.

Leaders of the ruling Shiv Sena, NCP and Congress have stepped up their attack on the BJP since an AIIMS medical panel ruled out "murder" in Rajput's death, which is currently probed by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).

The BJP has dismissed the allegations as "wild and baseless".

"We met @CPMumbaiPolice with demand to probe the BJP driven Social media terrorism - Conspiracy against our democracy, a methodology designed to defame opp govt's by creating narrative based on artificial public rage. Our team dug into Twitter terrorism & found out following facts," Sawant tweeted after a delegation led by him met the city police commissioner.

He alleged that "thousands" of Twitter accounts were opened after Rajput's death in June this year "just to run a campaign against Mumbai Police and the state government".

Sawant said these accounts tweeted and retweeted hashtags suggesting that Rajput was killed.

"The behavioural pattern of these twitter handles, history of their tweets and frequency of their retweets suggest that it was a well-thought planned conspiracy against the Maharashtra government," he alleged.

The Congress spokesperson further claimed that some professional agencies were specifically hired to malign the image of the Mumbai police and the state government.

He said the Congress had submitted the name of one such agency to the police.

"The target of this campaign was to paint a picture that the Mumbai Police is trying to push the matter under the carpet as the CM is desperate to save his son," he added.

Hitting back, Maharashtra BJP chief spokesperson Keshav Upadhye said, "the Congress and Sawant have the habit of making wild and baseless allegations. let the matter be probed".

Taking a dig, he said instead of making "baseless" allegations, the ruling party should focus on the deteriorating law and order situation in the state including the safety of women.

On Tuesday, Maharashtra Home Minister and NCP leader Anil Deshmukh said the state cyber department will probe who defamed the state in connection with the Rajput's death case on the social media.

He had also told reporters that a US-based university's study in connection with the case revealed "BJP hand in hyping the conspiracy theory".