Policy in works to block Pannun videos, other anti-India content-OxBig News Network

The posting of anti-India videos by Sikhs for Justice (SFJ) chief Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, who is a designated terrorist, was discussed extensively during a meeting of a parliamentary panel on home affairs, with Intelligence officials informing the MPs that efforts were afoot to take down such content.

Sources said a policy was also in the works to block offensive anti-India websites and content.

The Rajya Sabha panel, which undertook a six-hour-long discussion on the ramifications and prevention of cybercrime, was informed by intelligence officials that Pannun’s videos, which were released at regular intervals and were available on the Internet, would be blocked in coordination with US agencies.

Led by Rajya Sabha BJP MP Radhamohan Das Agarwal, the panel is learnt to have told the officials that the agencies were “on the job and necessary action was underway”.

Several members also sought to know from CBI and NIA chiefs Praveen Sood and Sadanand Date, who were present at the meeting, as to what action was being taken to check the rising cases of digital fraud. A few members cited data on digital arrest between 2022 and 2024, saying cases rose by 21 times and their cumulative worth was Rs 2,000 crore.

Opposition members are learnt to have asked the officials of the Ministry of Corporation Affairs why despite the Centre’s ‘Digital India’ push, cases of digital fraud and arrest were on the rise.

In January and February 2025 itself, around 17,000 cases of digital arrest (worth Rs 200 crore) had been detected.

The CBI chief is learnt to have told the panel that the agency could not act on its own, and that it was awaiting approval from several states to proceed in many cases.