Google removes app that fueled Khalistan movement

Internet giant Google has finally removed secessionist anti-India mobile application ‘2020 Sikh Referendum’ from its Play Store.

The referendum was aimed at stoking separatist Khalistan sentiments. Punjab chief minister Amarinder Singh had been demanding that Google should remove the mobile app to end secessionist propaganda.

On November 9 this year, IGP-Crime Nageshwar Rao raised the issue with the Legal Cell of Google India which was convinced that the platform was abused for committing illegal and anti-national activities by banned association 'Sikhs For Justice'. Google finally decided to remove it from the Play Store.

The CM, who had also urged the central government to persuade Google, had asked the DGP to coordinate with central security agencies to tackle the threat resulting from the launch of the app that was created by ICETECH.

The app had asked the public to register themselves to vote in the ‘Punjab Referendum 2020 Khalistan’.

A website with the address ‘www.yes2khalistan.org’ was also launched on similar lines for the same purpose. During an analysis of the listed application and the website in the authorised Punjab laboratory, it was found that the data of voters registered through the App was also linked and stored in the webserver of the website created and handled by ‘Sikhs for Justice’ (SFJ), an association banned by the Union government.

Based on these findings, the Cyber Crime Centre of Bureau of Investigation, Punjab, had moved to get the application removed from the Google Play Store and the website blocked for usage in India.

On November 8 this year, 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.