Gujarat has become the first state in India to apply the Cyber Terrorism Section 66F(2) of the Information Technology Act, 2000, to CCTV leak cases. The move follows a disturbing incident in Rajkot, where private videos of women undergoing gynecological exams at a maternity home were leaked online. The section, which addresses actions threatening national security, integrity, and sovereignty, is punishable by imprisonment, potentially extending to life in prison.
The state government, led by Minister of State for Home Affairs Harsh Sanghavi, is also drafting a Standard Operating Procedure (SoP) and new regulations for installing CCTV cameras in public spaces. This comes after Congress raised concerns in the Legislative Assembly over the leak.
Sanghavi detailed the rapid response from Gujarat Police after the incident was flagged by the Ahmedabad City Social Media Monitoring Cell on February 17. Police teams from Gujarat tracked the suspects, eventually arresting three accused across 1,300 km within 48 hours. The authorities also discovered a larger network of hackers who had been exploiting CCTV vulnerabilities.
“Gujarat Police started a thorough investigation into the incident when it was noticed by Ahmedabad City Social Media Monitoring Cell on February 17 at 5 pm,” said Sanghavi, explaining how the police traced the hackers’ activities using Telegram and VPNs. The accused were using virtual private networks from countries such as Romania, Japan, and Georgia to conceal their identities.
Sanghavi revealed that over the past eight months, the hackers had accessed more than 50,000 CCTV cameras across 20 states, targeting locations such as corporate offices, schools, and even private homes. To combat this growing threat, police have frozen the accused’s bank accounts and issued notices to social media platforms, urging them to remove any uploaded obscene content.
The Gujarat government has vowed to prevent future incidents by implementing more robust CCTV regulations and tightening security around these devices. “An SoP is being prepared and will be released soon by the state government. Socially I accept that installation of CCTV cameras at such locations should not have taken place,” Sanghavi remarked, acknowledging the importance of addressing privacy concerns.
The Home Minister also emphasized the importance of strong security measures for CCTV systems and urged lawmakers to ensure cameras are secured with proper passwords and settings to avoid further breaches.
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