Sting operations are deceptive operations designed to catch criminals in the act. This document discusses sting operations in India, including the first major sting operation conducted by Tehelka magazine in 2001 to expose corruption among politicians and defense officials. It also discusses the legal and ethical concerns around entrapment and privacy, and notes that while sting operations are not explicitly illegal, committing crimes during them could result in punishment. Types of stings are positive ones for public benefit and transparency, and negative ones conducted primarily for media attention. A case study examines the legal debate around balancing privacy rights and public interest.

1. STING OPERATION

2. Agenda
• Introduction.
• How does sting operation works
• First sting operation in India.
• Ethics and legal concerns.
• Types
• Case
• Conclusion

3. Introduction
a sting operation is a deceptive operation designed to catch a
person attempting to commit a crime.
A typical sting will have an undercover law enforcement officer,
detective, or co-operative member of the public play a role as criminal
partner or potential victim and go along with a suspect's actions to
gather evidence of the suspect's wrongdoing.
journalists occasionally resort to sting operations to record video and
broadcast to expose criminal activity.

4. HOW DOES STING OPERATION
WORKS
•
A Sting Operation is an operation designed to catch a person committing a crime
by means of deception. A complicated confidence game planned and executed
with great care. The word sting derives its origin from American usage to mean a
police undercover operation designed to ensnare criminals. The word sting is a
synonym for the expression set a trap to catch a crook and this article uses the
term in that sense.
• In more refined terms, it can be called Investigative Journalism or Undercover
• Sting Operation is an information-gathering exercise; it looks for facts that are not
simple requests and searches, or those that are actively being concealed,
•

5. FIRST STING OPERATION IN INDIA
• Operation West End was the first sting operation done
by Tehelka in 2001, an Indian news magazine known for
its investigative journalism. It was done in order to expose the
defense deals of the then ruling party, the NDA led by BJP.
• The special correspondents of the magazine filmed several corrupt
defense officials and politicians of ruling National Democratic
Alliance (NDA) government including the then Bharatiya Janata
Party President Late Bangaru Laxman. The operation took seven
and a half months to complete.

6. ETHICS AND LEGAL CONCERNS
• Sting operations are fraught with ethical concerns over whether they
constitute entrapment. Law enforcement may have to be careful not to provoke
the commission of a crime by someone who would not otherwise have done so.
Additionally, in the process of such operations, the police often engage in the
same crimes, such as buying or selling drugs, soliciting prostitutes, etc.
In common law jurisdictions, the defendant may invoke the defense of
entrapment.
• Contrary to popular misconceptions, however, in the USA rules against
entrapment do not prohibit undercover police officers from posing as criminals or
denying that they are police.[7] Entrapment is typically a defense only when
suspects are pressured into being implicated in a crime they would probably not
have committed otherwise, but the legal definition of this pressure varies greatly
from jurisdiction to jurisdiction.
• For example, if undercover officers coerced a potential suspect into
manufacturing illegal drugs to sell them, the accused could use entrapment as a
defense. However, if a suspect is already manufacturing drugs and police pose as
buyers to catch them, entrapment usually has not occurred.

7. TYPES OF STING OPEREATION
• Positive Sting operation: The operations which are taken up for the
betterment and benefit of the society. They tend to bring out such cases in
the public domain which needs to be decided. It is conducted in the light of
a legitimate concern for all the citizens and is not limited to the benefit or
wellbeing of a single individual. It mostly helps in increasing the
transparency of the government.
• Negative sting operation: These kind of sting operations do not provide for
any profit of the general public. These are generally done by media
houses to gain views and increase TRP under the headlines of "Breaking
News". These stings operations infringe the privacy of any individual who
is subjected to it and has no constructive motive behind it. It is rather a
lop-sided infringement of privacy which brings out only what the media
wants to claim as the truth of the situation.

8. CASE
Chetan Sharma sting operation: Right to privacy vs public
interest
• The incident of Chairman of the Senior Selection Committee of men’s cricket,
Chetan Sharma, who was caught in a controversy on Tuesday after he revealed
classified selection matters during a sting operation by a TV channel, has once
again sparked a debate on the legality of sting operations.
• Legal experts said in cases of entrapment and sting operations, a right balance
needed to be achieved between the right to privacy and public interest. Though
sting operations are not mentioned specifically in acts and regulations, judicial
opinion on the subject has surfaced time and again.

9. • In the case of People’s Union for Civil Liberties versus The Union of India, the
Supreme Court laid down the comprehensive directions that the government must
follow if it intends to use wiretaps.
• On the other hand, in RM Malkani versus the State of Maharashtra, the Supreme
Court upheld the admissibility of a tape recording on the telephone. The court
even went on to state that no provision under the Indian Evidence Act empowers
the courts to exclude evidence that is illegally or improperly secured.

10. Conclusion
• this doesn’t mean there are no constraints on such operations. “Sting operations
have not been explicitly stated to be illegal but in cases where a crime is
committed pursuant to the operation, then punishment under the Indian Penal
Code is attracted,” said Anushka Arora, Principal & Founder, ABA Law Office.
• In some cases, the courts have even upheld the legality of sting operations.