Manish Maheshwari, Twitter India’s Managing Director, has been named in an FIR filed with the Uttar Pradesh Police over a distorted map of India published on its platform that showed Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh as a separate country, NDTV reported.
The FIR has been registered based on a complaint filed by Praveen Bhati, an office-bearer of the Hindu nationalist group Bajrang Dal in UP. On Monday, Twitter Inc published a map on its website’s career section under the “Tweep Life” section that showed a distorted Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh as a separate country, detached from India. The microblogging site removed the map from its website on Monday night following social media backlash.
“This act of treason has been committed intentionally and action should be taken,” read the complaint filed by Bhati.
P Muralidhar Rao, a Bharatiya Janata Party leader, on Monday, wrote in a tweet, “Twitter is confirming by its actions the apprehensions expressed widely in last few months about its bias towards Indian interests & sensitivities. Twitter’s mischeavious representation of Indian Map is strongly condemned. Twitter has to follow law of land.”
Maheshwari has now been booked by the UP police under Section 505 (2) (statements conducing to public mischief) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and Section 74 of the IT (Amendment) Act, 2008 (publication for fraudulent purpose).
This is the second case filed against Maheshwari by the Uttar Pradesh Police. An FIR was filed by the UP Police on June 15 against Twitter Inc and Twitter Communications India, a few Indian National Congress party leaders and several media organisations over a viral video from Ghaziabad, of a Muslim man being attacked.
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The Karnataka High Court had granted interim relief to Maheshwari, on June 24, against the notice issued by Ghaziabad, Uttar Pradesh Police that had asked him to appear before them physically while adjourning the matter for Tuesday.
The latest FIR comes amid the ongoing tiff between Twitter Inc and the Centre. The Delhi Police, on May 24, raided the offices of Twitter India in New Delhi and Gurugram, hours after issuing a notice to Maheshwari about labelling several BJP leaders’ tweets as “manipulated media” in relation to a Covid-19 toolkit allegedly released by Congress. Twitter expressed concern over the “intimidation tactics” employed by the Delhi Police.