Delhi police questioned Twitter India MD on Manipulated Media

Bengaluru:The Delhi Police Special Cell sleuths on Thursday headed to Bengaluru and questioned Twitter’s managing director for India over the “manipulated media” tag the website attached to tweets by BJP leaders on the “Congress toolkit”.

A week after searching Twitter India's offices in Delhi and Gurgaon in this high profile case , Delhi police’s special cell had questioned the microblogging site’s country head in Bengaluru, as per reports coming out on Thursday.

According to latest reports, Twitter India Managing Director Manish Maheshwari was questioned by Delhi police team on May 31 in connection with the alleged “Congress toolkit.”

The police had sent two notices to Twitter over BJP leader Sambit Patra's tweet on an alleged "Congress toolkit".

The police said the replies of the Managing Director were vague and hence they went to Twitter India's offices to hand a third notice.Twitter had labelled Patra's tweet, which had screenshots of the alleged "Congress toolkit", as "manipulated media".

The Congress had filed FIRs against BJP leaders who tweeted the documents claiming that the "toolkit" was fake.

A senior police officer said Thursday that a Delhi Police's Special Cell team, which is probing the matter, was sent to Bengaluru on May 31 where Maheshwari was questioned.".

The police action drew sharp criticism from the opposition Congress and Left which had accused the government of trying to stifle free speech and indulge in intimidation.

Protesting the Delhi Police "visit" to its offices, Twitter had said it was concerned about its employees and the potential threat to freedom of expression.In response, the Delhi Police had issued a release terming Twitter's statements "mendacious", and designed to impede a lawful enquiry and seek "dubious sympathy".

The strongly-worded Delhi Police statement had also termed Twitter's conduct "obfuscatory, diversionary and tendentious".

The government had asked Twitter to remove the ''manipulated media'' tag as the matter was pending before the law enforcement agency, and made it clear that the social media platform cannot pass judgment while the issue is under investigation.(UNI)