Ghaziabad police slaps second notice on Twitter India MD

The Ghaziabad police on Monday warned the Twitter India managing director that his failure to report to it and join its investigation on June 24 in the case of the circulation of a communally sensitive video on its platform would amount to a hindrance in its probe entailing legal consequencesIn a second notice sent to Twitter India MD Maneesh Maheshwari Ghaziabad Senior Superintendent of Police Amit Pathak warned him that his failure may result in his prosecution for hindering the probeThe new notice to the Twitter India MD was sent late Monday evening after Maheshwari offered to join the investigation through video conference a senior police officer saidIn response to the first notice of the police Twitter India had also conveyed to them that the information sought by the Ghaziabad police did not pertain to Twitter India but Twitter Inc its global head officeIn the second notice sent to Twitter Indiarsquos Delhi office at Shahid Bhagat Singh Place in Gole Market SSP Pathak sternly told the MD that the ldquoeMail sent by you shows that you are escaping the responsibility of cooperation with the police in the investigationrdquoldquoClarification given by you is inappropriate Being the MD of Twitter in India you are the representative of the company Therefore you are bound by the Indian law to cooperate in the investigationrdquo SSP Pathak said in the second notice slapped on Maheshwari under section 41 A of the Criminal Procedure CodeThe SSP squarely held the MD responsible for the circulation of the communally provocative video in which an elderly Muslim man of Bulandshahr was seen crying on June 14 accusing four youths of beating him up chopping his beard and asking him to chant ldquoJai Shri RamrdquoldquoIn the public interest and for the sake of the security of the state you are authorised and have the power to make the decision that which tweet is supposed to be publicised and which should be deletedrdquo Pathak told Maheshwari reminding him of his editorial responsibilityldquoThe message concerned in which your cooperation is required has enhanced tension in the state and the country and has hampered the communal harmonyrdquo said PathakldquoThe Ghaziabad police had tweeted on June 14 through its official Twitter handle that the news broadcasted by you is fake It was under your jurisdiction and you could have stopped spreading the false information but you failed in itrdquo Pathak said in the noticeReminding the Twitter India MD of the consequences of failure in joining the investigation at Loni police station on June 24 Pathak further said ldquoYour absence would be treated as a hindrance to the investigationrdquoldquoThis type of act would be treated as an attempt of creating an obstruction in the investigation which leads the police to initiate further legal actionrdquo he addedNotices have also been sent to the news website The Wire in which journalists Mohammed Zubair and Rana Ayyub writer Saba Naqvi Congress politicians Salman Nizami Maskoor Usmani and Shama Mohamed have been accused of sharing the video with an intention to provoke communal unrestBulandshahr man Abdul Samad Saifi who was allegedly thrashed on June 5 by some youths over a dispute on a magical amulet given by him to another youth Parvesh Gurjar had reported the matter to police on June 7 on which the police had lodged an FIRBut days later on June 14 Saifi under the alleged instigation of a Samajwadi Party worker had got recorded the communal video claiming that he was thrashed and his beards chopped for not chanting ldquoJai Shri Ramrdquo leaving the police surprisedThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever