India's Department of Telecommunications ordered internet providers to block 129 betting websites this year on the strength of two state high court orders that do not exist, according to an investigation by Reuters' Munsif Vengattil and Aditya Kalra, published on Wednesday. The findings have led to a police case in Uttar Pradesh.
The first blocking direction, issued on July 21, followed an email that reached the department at 8:59 pm on Sunday, July 19, carrying what appeared to be an order of the Rajasthan High Court. It was signed "Aryan Chaudhary", described as an advocate-on-record. Two days later, the department told internet service providers to remove 34 betting websites "as specified in the court order as per the enclosed list". A Reuters query to the email address used by Chaudhary bounced back as "Recipient not found".
The second direction, on September 2, covered 95 websites. It rested on an order dated August 14 bearing the name of "Justice Garima Prashad" of the Allahabad High Court, sent on August 22 by a person identifying himself as advocate Kartikey Pandey. The document carried the court's logo and seal and a QR code of the kind used to verify authenticity; the code led to a random webpage displaying a single line, "Writ - A 30480/2026", the same case number the email cited.
Neither order appears in the courts' online registration records. Asked about the Rajasthan order, the High Court's registrar said in an email that it "appears to be fraudulent" and did not exist on its server. The Allahabad High Court filed a police complaint on November 6 after Reuters' queries, and the case documents show an investigation against unknown persons for alleged forgery and cheating, registered under sections 318(2), 336(2), 336(3), 337, 338 and 340(2) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita along with provisions of the IT Act.
"It is fake. It is not a genuine order from High Court of Allahabad," Ghanshyam Yadav, a senior state cybercrime official, told Reuters. No arrests have been made.
Reuters could not establish who created the documents, which carried blue seals with the national emblem of the kind found on genuine orders, or whether AI was used. Both were still on the telecom department's website as of Wednesday. The department did not respond to Reuters' questions. Its published correspondence shows officials discussing the complaints internally and seeking an "action taken report" before passing the directions on to internet providers, who complied.
Between them the two orders took down 129 sites offering gambling, which is illegal in India. The Supreme Court has warned about the trend: justices said last year that fabrication "bearing forged signatures of Judges strikes at the very foundation of public trust", and that such acts "cannot be treated as ordinary or routine offences".
The case is the second this month to turn on forged documents sent to officials in the name of the state. The Pioneer reported on Wednesday that Delhi Police had registered an FIR after forged notices in their name were used to seek the blocking of X accounts belonging to two civil rights organisations, Internet Freedom Foundation and Software Freedom Law Centre. X told the Delhi High Court last week that the notices were fake.