Telecast or publication of footage or grabs of the CCTVs at German Bakery and ‘O' Hotel may have been banned, but it is on YouTube since Feb 23, says a report in Mirror.
The question is, has the ban a become meaningless now, after almost 733 views till 9 pm on Friday?
Although Judicial Magistrate (First Class), G G Itkalkar, issued orders restraining the media from publishing, displaying or beaming the closed circuit security camera (CCTV) footage of the February 13 blasts in German Bakery, the video can be found on the internet's most popular video website, YouTube.
The footage is from the CCTV in the cashier's table in the bakery and the footage of the blast actually happening is from the CCTV located in ‘O' Hotel, which is just a few metres ahead of German Bakery.
The footage was telecast by two news channels, after which the ban was enforced after the Anti-Terrorism Squad moved court seeking a restraint order. However, despite the court's order, the footage has already had almost 733 viewers till 9 pm on Friday. It was uploaded on February 23.
When this was pointed out to Police Commissioner Dr Satyapal Singh, he said, “I will ask the ATS to take action against it.” He advised the media that is was better not to the show the footage or publish grabs of the video.
Cyber crime experts feel that if the footage is affecting investigations, it should be deleted from the website.
ClubHack founder Rohit Srivastwa said, “The investigators will have to contact the parent company of the video site and ask for its removal and block its copying and downloading immediately to stop the escalation.”
Cyber crime expert and lawyer Vaishali Bhagvat said telecasting, transmitting or circulation or the footage may invite serious legal trouble.
“Section 69 A of the Information Technology Act, 2000, and its amendments of 2009, empowers either the central government or the special officer appointed by it to penalise those showing such footage using computers. All the state has to do is to seek the centre's intervention.
The centre may summon the owners or the administrators of the website and ask them to remove it. If they fail to remove the content even after getting the directive, they are liable to face imprisonment for a period of upto seven years.”
Senior lawyer and Maharashtra Law Commission member, Vijay Sawant, said, “It is a shame that even the court's orders are not being followed in such a sensitive case. People who continue to circulate or telecast the footage are guilty of contempt of court and may face action.
Action can be taken against them under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act too. Besides, since the footage is being showed on the internet, it is also a case of cyber crime and can be dealt with by the Information Technology Act.”
Lawyer S K Jain added that those showing the footage may face action under the Bombay Police Act for violating the orders issued by the Police Commissioner.
“The Act allows for such people to be arrested and prosecuted. It is a non-bailable offence and the those involved will have to pay a fine if found guilty.”
A spokesman of Google which owns YouTube says: We do not comment on individual videos. However, our policy prohibits inappropriate content on YouTube and our community effectively polices the site for inappropriate material. The users can flag content they feel is inappropriate and once it is flagged it is reviewed by our staff and removed from the system within minutes if it violates our Community Guidelines (http://youtube.com/t/ community_guidelines). We also disable the accounts of repeat offenders.
