'Congress Toolkit' case: Delhi Police quizzed Twitter India head in late May, say reports
New Delhi/IBNS: The Delhi Police had on May 31 questioned Twitter India's Managing Director Manish Maheshwari in connection with the alleged "Congress toolkit", media reports said.
Maheshwari was questioned by a team of Delhi Police in Bengaluru, a report by NDTV says.
In the same week last month, two Delhi Police teams had visited Twitter India's offices after serving notice to the microblogging site in a row over Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Sambit Patra's tweet on an alleged "Congress toolkit" being marked as "manipulated media".
According to the police, they went to Twitter India's offices in south Delhi and at Gurgaon to hand the notice to the officials in person after finding the social media giant's replies "ambiguous".
The visit "was necessitated as we wanted to ascertain who is the right person to serve a notice, as replies by Twitter India Managing Director have been very ambiguous," the Delhi Police told media, calling it a "routine" task.
Television channels' visuals showed Special Cell cops at the Delhi office of Twitter India, which was shut as most employees are working from home in the COVID-19 lockdown.
The row involves BJP spokesperson Sambit Patra's tweet on May 18, shared by several leaders of the ruling party, with screenshots of what he called a "Congress toolkit" aimed at discrediting Prime Minister Narendra Modi as well as the government's handling of Covid situation.
The Congress party had written to Twitter stating the alleged "toolkit" was fake and forged letterheads had been used in the screenshots in circulation.
The opposition party had also said it had filed FIRs against BJP leaders who had shared the documents.
Later, Twitter had marked Patra's tweet as "manipulated media".
In response, the government had sent a stern letter asking Twitter to remove the tag as the "toolkit" as it was still under investigation.
The Delhi Police's Special Cell had sent a notice to Twitter asking for a clarification on the matter.
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