DPS MMS scandal

The DPS MMS Scandal of 2004 was an infamous scandal caused by the unconsented sharing of an explicit video filmed by a student at Delhi Public School. The scandal caused widespread sensation across India.[1]

The MMS clip

In 2004, an underage male student attending Delhi Public School, R.K. Puram, shot a video on his phone of a fellow female student topless and performing fellatio on him, seemingly without her knowledge. The grainy video clip was then shared through MMS and went viral on porn sites. Raviraj Singh, an engineering student attending IIT Kharagpur, was prosecuted for allegedly selling the two-and-a-half minute clip on baazee.com. Since the two students were minors they could not be prosecuted. Raviraj Singh was later acquitted because he had not yet made any money off of the video and his possession of the clip could not be proved beyond a reasonable doubt. The blame was then directed at Avnish Bajaj, the CEO of Baazee[2]

Auction bid

On 9 December 2004, an article appeared in Delhi-based tabloid Today with the headline, "DPS sex video at baazee.com". The article, written by Anupam Thapa, had the tag "Outrage", was an exclusive story, and claimed "online website goes ahead with the sale of the infamous clip". The article stated, "India's biggest online trading portal baazee.com had listed the said MMS clip under the title 'DPS girls having fun' with the member ID of 27877408. The police upon investigation learnt that one Alice Electronics of Kharagpur, West Bengal had sold 8 copies of said clip since the 27th November 2004." After this story appeared Delhi Police Commissioner took cognizance of the news item and ordered crime branch to register a case and investigate. Crime branch of Delhi Police registered a case at Hauz Khas Police Station naming Anupam Thapa as complainant in the case and treating the entire story as a First Information Report.[3] Avnish Bajaj, the then CEO of the website Baazee.com was summoned by the Delhi High Court for having allowed this clip to be listed for auction under sections 67 and 85 of the I-T Act, 2000. While Section 67 prohibits publishing obscene information in electronic form, Section 85 allows the prosecution of a person responsible for the business of a company over violations. Bajaj who had subsequently sold his company to eBay Pvt. Ltd. contended that mere listing could not be construed as crime under the Information Technology Act 2000.[4]

This incident caused panic across the country, with many media outlets covering the story. Discussions surrounding the event brought to light the inefficiency of and the need to amend the IT Act, 2000.[5] Following this scandal, and partly due to debates around culpability, liability and prosecution of material on the internet, several key judgements were passed including banning the use of mobile phones in college and school campuses across India.

Four Hindi films Dev.D (2009),[6] Love Sex Aur Dhokha (2010)[7], Ragini MMS (2011) and I Don't Luv U (2013)[8] were inspired by or based on the 2004 MMS scandal. The crime series Gumrah: End of Innocence also featured an episode on the issue, with Aanchal Munjal playing the lead.

gollark: Are you suggesting that Emojicode is actually saner than most other languages, apart from the emoji thing?
gollark: PHP templates are horrific, though.
gollark: Besides, nobody would want to write emojicode.
gollark: I might start running some sort of local serverless setup for small hacky stuff.
gollark: So in a way, PHP is... more bash than bash?

References
  1. Richa Kaul Padte. "What the DPS MMS tells us about consent in the digital age". timesofindia.com.
  2. Katrien Jacobs; Marije Janssen; Matteo Pasquinelli. "A Netporn Studies Reader" (PDF). Amsterdam: Institute of Network Cultures. p. 41. Retrieved 3 April 2012.
  3. "Avnish Bajaj vs State on 29 May, 2008". indiankanoon.org.
  4. Singh, Sanjay K (13 August 2008). "eBay chief moves SC in DPS MMS case". The Economic Times. Retrieved 16 June 2018.
  5. "Playblog: Pornography, Performance, and Cyberspace". cis-india.org.
  6. Kazmi, Nikhat (16 January 2010). "Tart with a heart". Times of India Crest Edition. Retrieved 2 September 2015. The turning point in Leni's life was the MMS scandal and Kashyap confesses he used the reference to the DPS MMS scandal to show what happens to a person whose privacy is affected by cheap, hidden cameras.
  7. "Delhi MMS scandal inspires Dibakar's 'Love,Sex Aur Dhoka'". The Indian Express. 29 December 2009.
  8. "Ruslaan Mumtaz to star in film on 2004 DPS MMS scandal". The Indian Express. 13 April 2013.
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