No Video Call, UP Police Summon Twitter India Chief on 24 June

The UP Police had sent a legal notice to Twitter India’s MD over posts related to the assault on a Muslim man.

The UP Police had sent a legal notice to Twitter India’s MD over posts related to the assault on an elderly Muslim man. 

(Photo: iStock)

The Loni Border Police Station has issued a fresh notice to Twitter India Managing Director Manish Maheshwari, asking him to appear in person before the police on 24 June over posts related to the assault on a Muslim man in Loni earlier in June, news agency ANI reported on Monday, 21 June.

This comes after Maheshwari replied to a legal notice from Uttar Pradesh Police sent for "provoking communal unrest" , stating that he is ready to be available for questioning via video conferencing.

Maheshwari, in his reply, also reportedly stated that he "does not deal with the case directly".

However, unsatisfied by the reply, the Ghaziabad Police in its fresh notice said, "Failing to appear before the police would be considered as non-cooperation in the investigation and action will be taken as per law.

Earlier too, the Twitter MD had been asked to come to the police station at the Loni border and record a statement within one week.

The legal notice was sent by the UP Police on 17 June, a day after a Delhi-based lawyer Amit Acharya filed a criminal complaint against actor Swara Bhaskar, journalist Arfa Khanum, Twitter India Head Maheswari, and Md Asif Khan, for allegedly spreading fake news in the Loni case.

Moreover, in a first such case against it, Twitter was named in an FIR by the Ghaziabad Police which accused the social media platform of not deleting tweets with regard to an incident involving a 72-year-old Muslim man Abdul Samad Saifi, being brutally thrashed in Ghaziabad’s Loni.

This gave rise to questions about the legal protection accorded to Twitter under Section 79 of the IT Act.

Union Minister for Electronics and Information Technology Ravi Shankar Prasad on Thursday, 17 June, said that Twitter lost its intermediary status and has become liable under Indian laws, including the Indian Penal Code.

Just one month earlier, the Delhi Police questioned Maheshwari for a ‘toolkit’, allegedly released by the Congress party.