One more strong amendment to the law meant for regulating cyber
offences and this time I am little sceptical about it. The Tamil Nadu
government has decided to incorporate the Goonda’s Act to curb cyber goons. Officially
known as Tamil Nadu Prevention of
Dangerous Activities of Bootleggers, Drug offenders, Goondas, Immoral
traffic offenders, Sand offenders, Slum grabbers, and Video pirates Act, 1985,
the law is extremely powerful and its arms reach seven categories offenders:
bootleggers, drug offenders, goondas, immoral traffic offenders, sand
offenders, slum grabbers, and video pirates. Those who research in the area of social
sciences including criminology, law and victimology, and those who practise criminal
law, may note that in general, the typical offenders in such cases who are
first nabbed by the investigating officers are often hired individuals or
groups of individuals who work for organised crimes sector. The law definitely is
extremely powerful to punish the big heads also. This law, if extended to include
offences committed in the cyber space which reports suggest “has the propensity
to disturb public order”,(see http://www.thehindu.com/news/states/tamil-nadu/tn-will-use-goondas-act-to-curb-cyber-crime/article4218006.ece?homepage=true) would actually acknowledge the devastating damaging
effect of cyber crimes. As I get from The Hindu, the law would be used to curb “
any repeated cyber crime that involves harassment, intimidation or cheating of
innocent people in large scale”. But the
rest of the news report gave an idea that these definitions may be largely meant for economic crimes and money
laundering activities through identity related crimes in the internet. True;
phishing, lottery scams, card scams, whatever you call them, people behind
these crimes are becoming cyber goons who are no less than those which are already
under the scope of the Goonda’s Act. In real life, the hired goondas may often
be less educated and become habituated for need of money. Cyber goons who act
as key players for phishing scams are well matured than these sects of people. But
their ultimate motives remain the same: to earn money by illegal ways. In the
Information Technology Act, 2000(amended in 2008), the offences chapter in
Chapter XI already have bunch of provisions like sections 65 and 66, which
prescribe punishment for unauthorised access to computer and data and modifying
the contents and computer related offences, the controversial 66A which
prohibits sending offensive messages etc, 66 C which prohibits identity theft
and 66D which prohibits impersonation by cheating etc. All most all of them can
be used in cases of phishing activities (off course depending upon the nature
of the operation) and they prescribe jail terms which may extend to three
years, besides monetary fines. To make the crime more severe, several Sections
from the Indian penal Code like Sections 417, 419, 420 are also used in some
cases. All of these sing in the same tune (with different tones): cheating and illegal
monetary benefit.
Apart from these, is the Goonda’s Act needed ?
I endorse
Ratna Kapur’s one statement in her very recent article Rape and the crisis of
Indian masculinity (http://www.thehindu.com/opinion/op-ed/rape-and-the-crisis-of-indian-masculinity/article4214267.ece).
She says More law — or calls for the death sentence — are not the answer to what
is a deeply ingrained societal problem. True, one more law may not be the
answer for ending the problem, but I feel happy to note that the problem which
remained “cyber” for so long is gradually becoming “real”. The true scope of
the law is yet to be determined. But I expect that it should not be misused by
police personnel just for the sake of executing the law. We already have a
devastating example of misuse of section 66A and the after effects must be
taken as a lesson for all. However, I am still waiting to see whether the law
extends its hand to nab cyber eve teasers too.
Please
Note: Do not violate copyright of this blog. If you would like to use
informations provided in this blog for your own
assignment/writeup/project/blog/article, please cite it as “Halder D. (2012), “Law to
regulate cyber goons”, 20th
December,2012,
published in http://cybervictims.blogspot.com/
