archive: Bengal administration in a fix over 'abusive' website'
Bengal administration in a fix over 'abusive' website'
Posted by Ashok Chowgule (ashokvc@giasbm01.vsnl.net.in)
The Economic Times
July 15, 1999
Title: Bengal administration in a fix over 'abusive' website'
Author:
Publication: The Economic Times
Date: July 15, 1999
The West Bengal government is in a fix. And the reason is an abusive
website on Bengalis. Having arrested the creator of the
controversial site, the government is not caught in a legal dilemma.
It has only now discovered that India does not have effective cyber
laws to prosecute offenders who misuse the Internet for "criminal"
activities. The lacuna came to the state government's notice
following the arrest of Shamit Khemka. The Calcutta-based software
businessmen, who had allegedly abused such eminent Bengalis as the
West Bengal chief minister Jyoti Basu and Nobel Laureate Amartya Sen
on his coded Web site, could be traced after much trouble. Instead of
using the server provided by the state-owned Videsh Sanchar Nigam Ltd,
Khemka had opted for an American server.
His motive, according to local authorities, was to promote communal
disharmony and create law and order problems among Bengalis through
provocative language and distorted facts. But the arrest only seems
to be the tip of an iceberg of problems that cyberspace has created.
The West Bengal government has only just begun to realise that it is
difficult to prosecute offenders like Khemka, who has justified his
action with his "fundamental right" to "freedom of speech".
Besides, the state home minister, Buddhadeb Bhattacharya, has pointed
out that the American Web site firm, Netcom, through which the alleged
anti-Bengali campaign was being spread, had refused to divulge details
about the site owner under the pretext of customer secretary. It was
only after the VSNL was approached for help that Khemka was discovered
as the alleged offender.
"A law should be framed so that there can be quick detection of the
offender and no Internet service provider can refuse to cooperate in
such cases," said Mr Bhattacharya. The state government now wants the
Centre to enact a law to punish those committing Web-based crimes,
while the state government keeps a strict watch on those indulging in
such activities, according to Mr Bhattacharya.
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