New Delhi: The Karnataka high court has granted interim protection from arrest to Twitter’s managing director in India in connection with the Uttar Pradesh Police FIR on the Ghaziabad attack, Bar and Bench has reported.The court has also directed police not to take any coercive action against Manish Maheshwari in the meantime, and has posted the matter for hearing against on June 29.Maheshwari had filed a writ petition with the Karnataka high court after Uttar Pradesh police sent him two notices to join investigation on June 24.Ghaziabad senior superintendent of police (SSP) Amit Pathak had warned Maheshwari that his failure may result in prosecution for hindering probe.Maheshwari offered to join the investigation through video conference but was turned down. Maheshwari lives in Bengaluru and had been asked to report at the Ghaziabad Police’s Loni Border police station.Section 161 of the Criminal Procedure Code enables an investigating officer to seek the appearance of any person who is acquainted with the facts and circumstances of a case, The Wire had reported.On June 15 Uttar Pradesh Police had lodged a late-night FIR against The Wire; journalists Rana Ayyub, Saba Naqvi and Mohammed Zubair; and three Congress leaders for tweeting the video of the attack on the Muslim elderly man, which had already gone viral. Since the attack, police have claimed that the incident was not communal, although the victim’s family has alleged otherwise to The Wire.The Bombay high court on June 23 granted protection from arrest to journalist Rana Ayyub for four weeks.Meanwhile, Twitter has also removed at least 50 tweets related to the Ghaziabad assault case, following a legal demand order by the Centre.However, Maheshwari and Twitter are now caught in what has proven to be a long drawn out war of will between the Centre and the social media giant.In late May, Delhi Police Special Cell personnel travelled to Bengaluru to question Maheshwari over the “manipulated media” tag the website attached to tweets by BJP leaders on the “Congress toolkit”.The interrogation reportedly lasted for two hours and questions concerned the hierarchy of the company, what information Twitter had on the “toolkit” and why they chose to give some tweets on it the “manipulated media” tag, Indian Express had reported.Scores of officers had also arrived to serve notices on the social media giant at its India offices in New Delhi and Gurgaon in late May.In the after of this raid, Twitter had expressed concern on the safety of its India employees and the question of freedom of expression in the light of the new IT Rules. The site’s delay in complying with the rules has led to a regular back and forth with the Centre, which has refused to back down.
