Revealed! Bollywood stars who exchanged money for political promotion
New Delhi : Over 30 Bollywood celebrities have been named in a list of people who agreed to promote political agenda of a party in exchange of money, reports Cobrapost.
In a sting operation - Karaoke - Cobrapost reporters met a couple of Bollywood celebrities as Public Relation officers and successfully struck a deal ahead of the upcoming Lok Sabha elections.
Addressing a press conference here, Cobrapost editor-in-chief Aniruddha Bahl said the sting revolves around 36 celebrities agreeing to post messages on their Facebook, Twitter and Instagram accounts to help create a favorable environment for certain political parties in the run-up to the elections.
"They would defend the government even on controversial issues such as rape and fatal accidents such as bridge collapses. They were even willing to sign a dummy contract for endorsement of products to disguise the real nature of the proxy political campaigning that they were willing to do," Bahl said.
Talking more about the payment, she said some actors agreed to give their PAN number and banking details while some restricted themselves to the cash payment.
#OperationKaraoke: Oberoi seeks required Data to make his messages look Factually Credible, something not paid for. “Aap data wagaireh bhi denge na...Data ke hissab se hum likh sakte hain … aisa lagna Nahi chahiye ki humein Bola gaya hai likhne ke liye” #BikaooBollywood pic.twitter.com/2SgD5TDMoN
— Cobrapost (@cobrapost) February 19, 2019
Actor Sonu Sood released a statement where he alleged that his conversation with outlet's representatives was "wrongly reproduced and projected".
"This is a clear case of sabotage. The editing has been tampered with and only certain elements of the conversation have been used and projected in the wrong light," he said.