In a crackdown on Twitter and its nefarious activities, the Uttar Pradesh government has now moved the Supreme Court against Karnataka High Court’s order granting Twitter MD Manish Maheshwari interim relief from arrest.
Uttar Pradesh moves Supreme Court against Karnataka High Court protection order for #Twitter MD Maneesh Maheshwari in assault case. pic.twitter.com/ED9s7TeY8r
— Hindustan Times (@htTweets) June 29, 2021
The Uttar Pradesh government had filed a case against Twitter for its failure to take down fake hate crime videos and posts that were made viral on the platform.
Maheshwari files caveat petition in Supreme Court
Meanwhile, Maheshwari has reportedly filed a caveat in the Supreme Court, dated June 26. Maheshwari urged that he be heard before any orders are passed in any appeal filed by the Ghaziabad police against the relief granted by Karnataka High Court.
Karnataka High Court’s order
We reported earlier that Twitter India managing director Manish Maheshwari was expected to join the probe and appear before the Ghaziabad Police in connection with the fake hate crime case being probed by Uttar Pradesh police.
Not satisfied with Maheshwari’s clarifications, the Ghaziabad Police had sent fresh summons asking Maheshwari to appear before it citing lack of conviction in response.
However, evading the investigation, Maheshwari, a resident of Bangalore, has filed a writ petition before the Karnataka High Court against the notice issued by UP Police under Section 41A of CRPC.
As per reports, Maheswari’s counsel argued that he is only an employee of Twitter and hence cannot be held accountable for the alleged offence. They also informed that the investigating officer had issued a notice on June 17 under section 160 of the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC) to Twitter India’s managing director but Maheshwari is not the managing director.
Following which Maheswari was granted interim protection from arrest and had been allowed to appear for police questioning via video conferencing by the Karnataka High Court.
Ghaziabad fake hate crime
Abdul Samad- an occult amulet maker was thrashed by Parvez, Adil and others during a personal altercation. Soon a muted video of Samad being beaten and the scripted and highly inflammatory Facebook live video of a local SP leader with him claiming the perpetrators made Samad to chant ‘Jai Shri Ram’ surfaced on social media. These videos were first picked up by self-acclaimed fact-checker Mohammed Zubair and then spread like wildfire on social media with the help of the left ecosystem.
A case of personal enmity was given fake communal tile by the misleading videos.
The Uttar Pradesh Government had then initiated an action against Twitter for failing to take down tweets despite clarifications and warnings by the police to not fan communal tensions on the basis of a fake video.
An FIR was lodged against the social media platform, and eight others including Rana Ayyub and Saba Naqvi in connection with the case. The UP Police’s FIR had come hours after Twitter lost its intermediary status for failing to comply with Indian laws under new IT rules.
Saba Naqvi and Muhammed Zubair record statements
In connection with the same case, eminent propagandist Saba Naqvi and co-founder of self-proclaimed ‘fact-checking’ website Alt News Mohammed Zubair, who had shared and then deleted a highly misleading video with fake claims of communal hatred, appeared before the UP Police on Monday to record their statement in the Loni fake hate crime case.
