UP Police Summon Twitter India Chief Over Loni Assault Video

A month ago, Delhi Police questioned Twitter India MD Maheshwari for a ‘toolkit’, allegedly released by Congress.

The Uttar Pradesh Police on Thursday, 17 June, sent a legal notice to Twitter India’s Managing Director Manish Maheshwari, for “provoking communal unrest” on the assault on a Muslim man in the state’s Loni earlier in June.

(Photo Courtesy: Twitter)

The Uttar Pradesh Police on Thursday, 17 June, sent a legal notice to Twitter India's Managing Director Manish Maheshwari, for "provoking communal unrest" on the assault on a Muslim man in the state's Loni earlier in June.

Maheshwari has been asked to come to the police station at Loni Border and record the statement within one week, reported news agency ANI.

"Failing to appear before the police would be considered as non-cooperation in the investigation and action will be taken as per law," reads the notice to Twitter India MD by Ghaziabad Police, according to ANI.

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

What Had Happened

Twitter, in a first such case against it, 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 elderly 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.

“We gave them (Twitter) three months. Others have followed, they haven’t. Rule 7 of the (IT) guidelines says that if you don’t comply then under Section 79, you may lose intermediary status and may become liable to other laws, including penal laws of the country,” Prasad told news agency ANI.

Questioning Twitter's non-compliance with IT rules, Prasad said, "When Indian companies do business or pharma companies go to manufacture in US, do they follow American laws or not? If you have to do business here, you're welcome to criticise the PM, all of us...but you've to obey India's Constitution and rules."