Even Shreya Singhal shocked: 2,402 people been arrested under section 66A of IT Act in 2014

Thursday, 20 August 2015 By Legally India Bar, Bench & Litigation

The Hindustan Times’ Aloke Tikku reported:

A first-of-its-kind set of statistics compiled by the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) reveals that 2,402 people, including 29 women, were arrested in 4,192 cases under section 66A — which was struck down in March by the Supreme Court that ruled that it violated the constitutional freedom of speech.

These arrests made up nearly 60% of all arrests under the IT Act, and 40% of arrests for cyber crimes in 2014. It was also a little less than twice the number of people caught red-handed accepting bribes the same year.

“These statistics are shocking. I had assumed there may be a few hundred cases, at worst,” said Shreya Singhal, on whose petition the top court had scrapped the provision.

Also read: Behind the scenes: How 90+ lawyers & 3 judges created the biggest free speech judgment in more than half a century

IT Actfreedom of speech*section 66ANational Crime Records Bureau (NCRB)Shreya SinghalSupreme Court

Comments

Guesst 20 Aug 2015, 07:32
+0 -0
For researchers with the time and inclination, I am happy to share:

http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20121106/16174720954/abuse-indias-information-technology-act-results-indias-first-arrested-twitter-user.shtml

http://thefirm.moneycontrol.com/story_page.php?autono=942500
http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2013-08-19/mumbai/41424525_1_webs
ite-section-66-a-section-66a

http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/no-coercive-action-against-taslima-sc-tells-up-police/article5469447.ece


http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2010-07-27/india/28280794_1_punjab-police-jay-polychem-samdeep-varghese

http://xa.yimg.com/kq/groups/19288733/1894453788/name/Yashwant+Sinha+vs+Ravinder+Singh+-+Section+66A+Illegal+Case.pdf
Sugreve 20 Aug 2015, 09:50
+1 -0
A very simple single solution to all such problems in world's largest democracy will be to pass a constitutional law to declare each and every citizen as deemed to have been arrested and deemed to be on bail unless a competent court has directed otherwise in a particular case!
End of Cops Bonanza 21 Aug 2015, 01:50
+0 -0
The 66A problem is it placed extreme power in the hands of the cyber cops. This power was misused by interested parties, that is corruption.

The bonanza for cyber cops was big. They were trained by NASSCOM experts or 2nd level experts. Cyber cops of Inspector level and above were on flights from metro to metro sometimes with constables and it was not normal taxpayers money, but air tickets were paid by their clients. Clients ordered these investigations becase cyber cell cops had training and authority for a reasonable "fee"... and perks like flights. Many cops at Inspector level and above became rich beyond their salary levels. It should be looked into from 2009.

After arrests under 66A the cops would confiscate the "evidence" and once they got what the client wanted they did not harass the victim excessively, like not opposing his bail application etc. The evidence was captured and copied out.. and in many cases returned to the victim! The ploy was "arrest for investigation purposes"...."released on bail". The number of FIRs is a small fraction of the number of investigations. This should be looked into along with "assets beyond means" to catch the big fish.
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