Sushant Singh Rajput’s death: Cyber department warns of legal actions against circulation of pictures of actor’s body

Bollywood actor Sushant Singh Rajput committed suicide at his Bandra home on Sunday. A few hours after his demise, social media platforms were flooded with the pictures of his dead body infuriating several netizens. On Sunday, Maharashtra Police Cyber department issued a notice, warning the people to stop circulating the pictures of the late actor’s body on the internet and anyone not adhering to the order will face legal action. 

The cybercrime department in Maharashtra requested the people on social media to delete the pictures they have already shared and not post any further posts of his deceased body.

Hours after his death, social media users started sharing pictures of the late actor’s body on Whatsapp groups followed by twitter, TikTok, Facebook and other social media platforms.

Several netizens have expressed their anger and shock over this insensitive behaviour on social media platforms just to gain more attention and popularity.

The Cyber department took to Twitter and stated, “A disturbing trend has been observed on Social Media platforms by Maharashtra Cyber that pictures of deceased actor Shri. Sushant Singh Rajput are being circulated, which are disturbing and in bad taste. It is emphasised that circulation of such pictures is against legal guidelines and court directions, and are liable to invite legal action. Maharashtra Cyber exhorts and directs all netizens to refrain from circulating the aforesaid pictures. The pictures already circulated should be deleted henceforth. (sic)”

The department has previously circulated a notice warning the users of the legal actions which was under Section 149 of the Criminal procedure Code (CrPC) for uploading any offensive, defamatory or disturbing posts on social media. They also further mentioned that posting them is a serious offence under the “Information technology Act, IPC and other laws of the land.”

Police officials also stated that it was difficult to find out the source of the pictures that were shared through a platform like WhatsApp. However, they are keeping a close watch on all the social media platforms to track users who are sharing the pictures and will take action against anyone caught sharing them.