Microblogging social media platform Twitter India, Managing Director Manish Maheshwari, was questioned by the Delhi police last month on May 31 for alleged involvement in the "Congress toolkit" plot. Maheshwari was questioned by a team of the Delhi Police Special Cell in Bengaluru on May 31. This took place a week after Delhi Police teams had raided Twitter offices in Delhi and Gurgaon to follow up on two notices over BJP spokesperson Sambit Patra's tweet on an alleged "Congress toolkit" that was marked as "manipulated media". However, they couldn’t reach anyone as the offices were closed.
A senior officer from the special cell stated that they decided to physically serve the notice after they didn’t receive an appropriate response to see who is the right person to serve the notice. Twitter was asked to explain why Sambit Patra’s tweet on May 18, consisting of screenshots of what he called tweet on May 18, was intended at defaming Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the government's handling of Covid, were labelled "manipulated media".
The tag appeared when Congress wrote to Twitter saying the said “toolkit” was fake and FIRs against BJP leaders who tweeted the toolkit documents were registered.
The police team had gone to Bengaluru to question Maheshwari seven days after it had visited its north India offices.
“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 the questioning that went on for around two hours, the investigating team had asked about the hierarchy in the firm.
“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 preliminary enquiry was being conducted before registering an FIR informed a senior officer, adding that all the concerned people and organisations connected in the matter are being summoned.
No FIR has been filed yet, while BJP spokesperson Sambit Patra, whose post was flagged, is also likely to be summoned for questioning.
Gowda earlier had said that after they received a notice from Delhi Police on May 21, they have decided to pursue a complaint in Chhattisgarh where police have recorded an FIR where Patra and former chief minister Raman Singh are named for their “toolkit” tweets.
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“Since an FIR had been registered in Chhattisgarh and we had not seen any satisfactory progress from the Delhi Police on the matter, we implemented ourselves as co-complainants. We replied to Delhi Police on May 22 stating that we will be pursuing our complaint in Raipur,” Gowda said.