Juvenile traced to Srinagar for sending fake Delhi Police notices targeting IFF, SFLC X accounts; Crime Branch registers FIR

The Delhi Police’s Crime Branch has registered a case over fraudulent notices purportedly issued in the name of the force, seeking the removal of social media posts and the blocking of accounts belonging to the Internet Freedom Foundation (IFF) and the Software Freedom Law Centre (SFLC), an official close to the development told The Hindu.

A juvenile has been traced to Srinagar in connection with the impersonation, sources said.

Also read | ‘Imposter’ sent fake police notices seeking to block IFF, SFLC accounts: X tells Delhi High Court

The FIR has been registered on charges of impersonating a public servant and forgery under the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) and the Section 66 of Information Technology (IT) Act.

The development comes days after social media platform X told the Delhi High Court that an internal investigation had established that the notices were not genuine police communications and had been sent by an “imposter”. The platform also told the court that it had not acted on the requests and would not take down the organisations’ accounts.

The case follows a November 6 hearing before Justice Amit Mahajan, who was hearing petitions filed by the two digital rights organisations challenging the purported takedown requests. X’s counsel told the court that the platform had conducted an internal investigation and found that someone had impersonated the Delhi Police.

“We did not act on it. Notices are not sent by the Delhi Police. We have filed a complaint with the Delhi Police last night to find the imposter,” X’s counsel submitted.

The court recorded the platform’s assurance and disposed of the petitions, granting the organisations liberty to approach it again if any action was taken against their accounts.

The controversy began after X forwarded two purported ‘Illegal Content Reports’ to IFF on November 3. The first, dated October 31, sought the removal of a post published by IFF on October 30 and another post by SFLC. The second, dated November 2, sought the removal of 37 posts and the blocking of three accounts — @internetfreedom, @SFLCin and @geoblockedindia — in their entirety.

The notices alleged that the posts were “defamatory” towards the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) under Section 356 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS). They reportedly called for the content to be removed or withheld within three hours, citing provisions of the Information Technology Act and the IT Rules, 2021.

IFF had said that the posts in question reproduced and commented on a legal notice purportedly sent to the organisation on behalf of the RSS. It maintained that the posts constituted protected speech under Article 19(1)(a) of the Constitution and that it had not been given prior notice before the takedown requests were submitted.

The organisation subsequently served a legal notice on the Delhi Police and X Corp. through its counsel, seeking clarification over the requests.

SFLC, meanwhile, had questioned the authenticity of the communications after attempting to verify them with the Delhi Police. It said an email sent to the address mentioned in the purported notices was returned as undelivered, with an error stating that the user did not exist. The organisation pointed out that the same email address was listed on the Delhi Police website at the time, further raising questions about the communications.

The organisations had approached the Delhi High Court after failing to obtain clarity on whether the notices had actually been issued by the police.

Efforts are underway to trace the sender by examining IP address details and other digital footprints as part of the investigation being conducted by the Crime Branch’s cyber wing. The Delhi Police’s Intelligence Fusion and Strategic Operations (IFSO) unit will also assist in the probe.