The Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) has issued a circular that warns of stringent action against its personnel who are found circulating sensitive documents on messaging apps.

Sources said the top brass of the country’s biggest paramilitary force issued the directive after it was found that information relating to movement of troops/vehicles, arms and ammunitions and other classified information were allegedly leaked on social media and various messaging applications.

“This is a very serious offence under the Official Secrets Act. The circular was recently issued to all formations of the force across the country,” said a CRPF official.

The commanding officers of all the formations have been directed to avoid social media platforms for sending or receiving official messages and communication. “They have been asked to ensure that only the internal communication system of the CRPF is used for sending or receiving official messages and communication,” the official said.

A couple of years ago, the Union home ministry had restricted the use of social media by paramilitary personnel and they were stopped from uploading personal photos or videos on Twitter, Facebook, WhatsApp, Instagram or YouTube without permission.

The ban followed in the wake of a spate of incidents where jawans took to social media to ventilate their problems and grievances relating to poor quality of food and bad working conditions, leaving the government red-faced.

In 2018, the BSF had sacked a constable Tej Bahadur Yadav, who had uploaded video clips to complain that troops were allegedly served substandard food.