Ashish Pandey 
Lucknow:
Those who are buying videos of women bathing at the Maha Kumbh will be arrested, along with those who are selling such videos, a Uttar Pradesh police official told NDTV, adding that so far 103 social media accounts have been identified for action.
The UP social media monitoring team detected that certain platforms were uploading videos of women bathing and changing clothes at the Kumbh, the world’s largest religious gathering, violating their privacy and dignity, the police said in a statement.
The Kumbh Mela attracts tens of millions of Hindu faithful every 12 years to the city of Prayagraj. The six-week Kumbh Mela is the single biggest milestone on the Hindu religious calendar, and officials said around 500 million devotees have already visited the festival since it began last month. Hindus believe bathing there during the Kumbh helps cleanse sins.
“Yesterday, we came to know that there are some social media profiles, some groups have been formed where such illegal activities are being carried out. We have lodged an FIR against them and all those people are being identified who are involved in such misdeeds. These are criminal offences. This is a crime under the IT Act,” Maha Kumbh Deputy Inspector in General (DIG) Vaibhav Krishna told NDTV.
“Those who are selling such videos will be arrested as also those who are buying them. Our social media team is continuously monitoring. Action will be taken against those social media profiles which are uploading such content,” the officer underlined.
Asked how many such groups or people have been identified so far, the top officer said FIR has been filed against a few Telegram and Instagram profiles.
“We filed an FIR yesterday. There are some profiles on Telegram and Instagram against which FIR has been filed. Even now we are monitoring them. We are identifying them and filing FIR against them. So far 103 social media profiles have been identified, in which there are profiles that spread panic and also there are profiles that are putting out private videos of women from Maha Kumbh,” said the officer.
“Total there are 26 social media handles. Those who are involved in this illegal act – on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter – will face action,” he said.
