HT Correspondent
letterschd@hindustantimes.com
Chandigarh : Conceding Punjab chief minister Amarinder Singh’s demand, Google has removed the secessionist, anti-India mobile application, “2020 Sikh Referendum,” from its Play Store with immediate effect.
A spokesperson of the chief minister’s office said the app was no longer available on Google Play Store for mobile phone users in India to download.
“Sikhs for Justice”, a group based abroad and banned by India, has been lobbying for Punjab’s secession through its “2020 Sikh Referendum” campaign.
The CM, who had also urged the central government to persuade Google on the matter, had asked the state police chief to coordinate with central security agencies to tackle the threat resulting from the launch of the app. Punjab CM had accused Pakistan’s ISI of being involved in the campaign.
During an analysis of the application and the website in the Digital Investigation, Training and Analysis Centre (DITAC) Lab, it was found that the data of voters registered through the app was also linked and stored in the server of the website, created and handled by Sikhs For Justice
Based on these findings, the cyber crime centre of the Bureau of Investigation, Punjab, moved to get the app removed from Google Play Store and the website blocked in India.
On November 8, a notice under Section 79 (3) B of the Information Technology Act was sent to the Google legal cell for the immediate removal of the app, created by ‘ICETECH’.
After approval from the additional chief secretary, home, a request was sent to the cyber law division, department of electronics and information and technology, Government of India, for blocking the application.
On November 9, inspector general, crime, Nageshwar Rao, and the state cyber-cum-DITAC Lab in-charge, raised the issue with the legal cell of Google India.
The state government said Google India was then convinced that its platform was abused for committing “illegal and anti-national activities”.
There was no response from Google till press time.