PUBG ban: 10 people ‘booked’ in Rajkot for playing the game

PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds (PUBG) was recently banned in Rajkot and now the police have ‘booked’ 10 people, six of them undergraduates, for playing PUBG. This is for the first time that people are being detained for playing a harmless game. Of the 10 arrested, six are already out  on bail.

“But it is a bailable offence. People have been booked but there is nothing like arrest in it. In the procedure, they will be shown as immediately bailed out by police. The case will go to the courts and there will be a trial for not following the notification issued”, Rajkot Police Commissioner Manoj Agrawal told The Indian Express.

According to a notification issued by Rajkot Police Commissioner, anyone could report an instance of someone playing PUBG and the latter may face prosecution under the Central Government Act under Section 188. The ban was implemented on March 9 and would be in effect till April 30.

PUBG is still legal in the rest of India, but Gujarat singled out the game after parents and educators complained that the game was too violent and distracted students from studying.

“This game is highly addictive and the accused were so engrossed in playing them that they could not even notice our team approaching them,” SOG police inspector Rohit Raval told the publication.

However PUBG’s parent company Bluehole had recently released a statement to local Indian media to address the concerns, saying, “we also believe that it is extremely important for us to be a responsible member of the gaming ecosystem. To this end, we constantly work and shall continue to work with … parents, educators, and government bodies, and listen to their feedback on what we can do.”