Mumbai: The Parbhani sub divisional police officer was recently forced to withdraw his controversial circular in which he instructed police inspectors to find out administrators of all WhatsApp groups which are active in their concerned jurisdiction areas.
He had instructed police officials to issue summons to such administrators and warned them not to circulate any controversial messages, pictures, etcetera, that may ignite tension among communities. On hearing about it, Brijesh Singh, Director General of Information and Publicity Department, who also holds charge of cyber cell, warned the SDPO to withdraw his circular with immediate effect.
On April 10, Sanjay Pardeshi, SDPO, Parbhani city, had issued an internal circular. He had asked police inspectors of each police station to find out Whatsapp administrator, summon them and inform them not to post any controversial matter regarding religion, person, statues, paintings, temples, mosques, Masjids, madarsas and other religious places.
Pardeshi in his circular also said that administrators should not post video recordings, text messages or photo clips that may create tension in society. If any administrator does so, action will be taken against it, he stated in his circular. Pardeshi asked police inspectors to submit an action taken report to his office.
Dr Brijesh Singh said, “When I came to know about this circular, I instructed him to withdraw the circular. It is highly impossible to keep tabs on WhatsApp administrators since there are hundreds and thousands of such administrators in every city. Even if we deploy number of officers to keep tab on administrator, we can do it,” said Dr Singh.
He added, “WhatsApp is encrypted application, meaning only the person who sends and receives messages can read it. There is no way to hack messages and hence tracking of WhatsApp messages is impossible.” The circular was baseless and ineffective and hence I asked him to withdraw it, he added.