Congress ‘toolkit’ case: Delhi Police visited Bengaluru, questioned Twitter India MD over ‘manipulated media’ tag

During questioning, which lasted for around two hours, the investigation team asked about the hierarchy of the company and why they chose to give the "manipulated media" label to posts by certain leaders

At a time when the public spat between Twitter and the Centre has intensified, it has come to light that cops from Delhi Police’s special cell had gone to Bengaluru on May 31 to question the microblogging site’s India MD Manish Maheshwari over posts by BJP leaders alleging a “Congress toolkit plot”.

Following a complaint lodged by the Congress, police have summoned Twitter officials, and the Grand Old Party’s social media head Rohan Gupta and spokesperson M V Rajeev Gowda, who had filed the complaint. However, BJP spokesperson Sambit Patra is yet to be called in for questioning.

A senior officer said the New Delhi Range of special cell had approached Maheshwari days after they visited Twitter India’s Delhi and Gurgaon office to serve a notice in the case. However, they couldn’t locate the Gurgaon office, and the one in Delhi was locked.

“Another notice was sent to Maheshwari by the investigation officer to join the investigation. The IO had told him that they would come to his house for questioning. They were later communicated by Maheshwari to come to Bengaluru and two inspectors, along with a senior officer, went there to question him,” an officer said.

During questioning, which lasted for around two hours, the investigation team asked about the hierarchy of the company. “They also asked him about what sort of information Twitter has about the toolkit and why they chose to give the ‘manipulated media’ label to posts by certain leaders,” a senior police officer said.

A senior officer from the special cell said they had sent a notice to Twitter earlier as well about the same but didn’t receive “an appropriate response”. They decided to physically serve the notice, days after Twitter flagged some posts by ruling party leaders alleging a Congress plot to malign the Prime Minister and the central government as “manipulated media”.

“They later visited their offices in Delhi and Gurgaon. This was necessitated as we wanted to ascertain who is the right person to serve a notice as replies by Twitter India MD have been very ambiguous,” Delhi Police PRO Chinmoy Biswal had said.

A senior police officer said they are, as of now, conducting preliminary inquiry before registering any FIR and summoning all the concerned people and organisations allegedly involved in the matter. While an FIR has not been lodged yet, the officer said that BJP spokesperson Sambit Patra, whose post was flagged, is also likely to be summoned for questioning.

Gowda had said that they received a notice from Delhi Police on May 21 and have conveyed that they will pursue the complaint in Chhattisgarh where police have registered an FIR naming Patra and former chief minister Raman Singh for their “toolkit” tweets.

“Since an FIR had been registered in Chhattisgarh and we had not seen any satisfactory progress from the Delhi Police on the matter, we impleaded ourselves as co-complainants. We replied to Delhi Police on May 22 stating that we will be pursuing our complaint in Raipur,” Gowda added.

Source: Read Full Article