Mumbai Police have issued notices to at least 24 users of X for sharing a documentary that accuses Prime Minister Narendra Modi and industrialist Gautam Adani of corruption and cronyism. The notices have set off a debate over policing of online speech.
The 36-minute film is titled “How Adani and Modi stole India”. It was made by Sabeer Bhatia, the Indian-American entrepreneur who co-founded Hotmail. The notices were issued on October 18, after a complaint to the cyber police alleged that several X accounts had published “highly objectionable content” targeting a well-known company. The complaint said the posts carried false and disparaging claims that harmed the company’s reputation, goodwill and public image.
The notices cite Sections 352 and 356 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, which cover intentional insult meant to provoke a breach of the peace, and defamation. Officials also said that circulating such material could violate X’s own guidelines. The account holders and the platform were asked to review the posts and remove or disable access to them. The URLs in the notices pointed to Bhatia’s own account.
Several users deleted the clips after receiving the notices. Others posted copies of the notices on their profiles and called the police action an overreach. Bhatia has confirmed that Mumbai Police asked him to take down certain posts, and that he complied.
The film had already been in the government’s sights. The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting issued takedown directions to platforms such as YouTube and Meta after court orders. It has nonetheless continued to circulate on X.
On Thursday, October 22, Maharashtra Navnirman Sena chief Raj Thackeray posted the documentary on his X account with a message in Marathi. Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Sanjay Raut also shared it. Raut alleged that the BJP and the government were trying to suppress the video because they wanted to hand over Mumbai and other infrastructure projects to Adani.
In 2023, the government blocked a BBC documentary on Modi’s role in the 2002 Gujarat riots, and police detained students at Delhi University over screenings.
