Days after Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh asked Google to remove an anti-India mobile application — ‘2020 Sikh Referendum’ — from its play store, the mobile app has been removed, said a government statement on Tuesday.
A press release from Punjab Chief Minister’s office said that the app was not available any more on Google play store for mobile users in India.
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The Chief Minister, who had also urged the Central government to persuade Google in the matter, had asked the State Director General of Police to coordinate with central security agencies to tackle the threat resulting from the launch of the app.
Notably, the app invited general public to register themselves to vote in the “Punjab Referndum 2020 Khalistan”.
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The statement said that during analysis of the said application and an associated website in the Digital Investigation Training and Analysis Centre (DITAC) Lab, Punjab, it was found that the data of voters registered through the app was also linked and stored in the web server of the website, namely www.yes2Khalistan.org, created and handled by ‘Sikhs For Justice’ (SFJ), an outfit banned by India.
Notice to Google
“Based on these findings, the Cyber Crime Centre of the Bureau of Investigation, Punjab, had moved to get the app removed from the Google play store and the website blocked for usage in India.
On November 8, 2019, a notice under Section 79 (3) B of Information Technology Act was sent to the Google Legal Cell for immediate removal of the mobile application from the Google Play Store,” said the statement.