Bengaluru: The Karnataka Police Department has issued a significant Standing Order directing all law enforcement officers across the state to take strict and immediate action in cases involving the non-consensual publication, transmission, or sharing of intimate and private images or videos.

The new legal framework explicitly clarifies that a victim’s initial consent to capture or record an image or video does not amount to consent for its public dissemination or sharing.

Any subsequent sharing, publishing, forwarding, or electronic transmission of such explicit material without consent is a distinct cognizable offence, even if the dynamic material was originally captured with mutual consent.

Following directions issued to the Department of Home, police officers have now been ordered to mandatorily register First Information Reports (FIRs) in complaints involving non-consensual dissemination of intimate content.

This includes cases commonly categorized under revenge pornography, sextortion, and digital blackmail videos, stated Minister Priyank Kharge.

The guidelines state that FIRs must be registered immediately under the relevant penal provisions of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), 2023, and the Information Technology Act, 2000.

This legally encompasses Section 77 of the BNS where applicable, alongside Sections 66E, 67, and 67A of the Information Technology Act.

The Standing Order strictly mandates that police stations must not refuse or delay the registration of complaints on the erroneous ground that the victim had earlier consented to the digital recording.

In cases involving explicit threats, extortion of money, demands for physical sexual favours, or other forms of coercive tactics, additional legal provisions relating to extortion and criminal intimidation must be dynamically invoked.

Where territorial jurisdiction poses an issue, police stations have been instructed to register a Zero-FIR without any hesitation and transfer the file to the appropriate local police station without delay.

Officers have also been ordered to take prompt, time-bound steps for the immediate removal or blocking of the offending content from online platforms, preserve vital digital electronic evidence, and coordinate extensively with Cyber Crime Police Stations and the CID Cyber Division for technical investigation.

The state-wide directive stresses that victims coming forward must be treated with the utmost dignity, privacy, and empathy.

Their operational identity must be kept strictly confidential, victim-shaming must be heavily avoided, and wherever feasible, complaints registered by women victims should be handled and recorded by women police officers.

Any failure, hesitation, or delay in registering a formal FIR on the wrong ground of “prior consent” will be viewed with extreme seriousness by the higher administration.

It will directly attract strict departmental action against the concerned errant officer. This comprehensive direction aims to reinforce the Indian constitutional Right to Privacy and ensures a uniform, victim-sensitive, and legally airtight emergency response across all police stations throughout Karnataka.

GangolliNews