DPS MMS Scandal

Facts

• The 2004 DPS MMS Scandal involved an explicit video filmed by a student at Delhi Public School, R. K. Puram.
• The video, shot by an underage male student, Hemant Chugh, featured a female student without her consent.
• The video was shared via MMS and quickly went viral on various platforms.
• The scandal was first reported by the Delhi-based tabloid, Today.
• Following the report, the Delhi Police Commissioner initiated an investigation.
• Avnish Bajaj, then CEO of Baazee.com, was summoned by the Delhi High Court for allowing the video to be auctioned on the site.
• The incident sparked nationwide concern and discussions about amending the IT Act, 2000.
• In response to the scandal, mobile phones were banned in college and school campuses across India.
• The female student involved was expelled from the school and later continued her studies in Canada.
• The scandal inspired four Hindi films: Dev.D (2009), Love Sex Aur Dhokha (2010), Ragini MMS (2011), and I Don't Luv U (2013).

The MMS clip

The alleged pornographic MMS clip was 2 minutes and 37 seconds long and was shot by the two 17-year-old students of DPS, R.K Puram school involved, on a Nokia 6600 Smartphone. It is reported that the sexual act as well as the making of the clip was a consensual activity as admitted by the students.

Students involved

While the two students in the sexual act and filming were underage students of Delhi Public School, once the video clip went viral on mobile phones, Raviraj Singh, an engineering student was prosecuted for allegedly selling the video clip on baazee.com. While the two producer-students were not prosecuted since they were minors and Raviraj Singh was acquitted because he had not made any sales of the clip yet and his possession of the clip could not be proved beyond certainty, the blame was then directed to Avnish Bajaj, the CEO of Baazee.com Both girl and boy were from affluent backgrounds--the boy was from a export business family and the girl's father was said to be in the services. They were in 11th standard in DPS. The boy was in the commerce stream. Both were expelled from DPS. The girl was sent to Canada by her family, while the boy got admission to the The British School, New Delhi.

Auction bid

On 9 December 2004 a news item appeared in Delhi-based tabloid TODAY with the Headline "DPS sex video at baazee.com". The news item by Anupam Thapa had the tag "Outrage" and was an exclusive story and stated "online website goes ahead with the sale of the infamous clip". The news item 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 since 27th November 2004 sold 8 copies of the said MMS clip." 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. 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.

Legal consequences

This incident caused a sudden panic across the country and many discussions regarding the inefficiency of the IT Act, 2000 and the need to amend it started. Also, after this scandal, owing to debates around culpability, liability and prosecution of material on the internet, several key judgments were passed including banning the use of mobile phones in college and school campuses across India.

In popular culture

Four Hindi films Dev.D (2009), Love Sex Aur Dhokha, Ragini MMS and I Don't Luv U have a portion of the story based on this MMS scandal.