Twitter India chief Manish Maheshwari has been booked by the Uttar Pradesh police in reference to the platform portraying a wrong map of India on its website, said people conversant in the event on Tuesday. along side Maheshwari, one Amrita Tripathi has also been booked under section 505(2) of the IPC — statement conducing to public mischief – and section 74 of the IT (Amendment) Act, 2008. Bulandshahr senior superintendent of police (SSP) Santosh Kumar Singh confirmed that a lawyer Praveen Bhati has lodged an FIR against officials of Twitter India for showing the wrong map of India
The case was registered at the Khurja Nagar police headquarters in Bulandshahr on the complaint of an area Bajrang Dal leader.
The case relates to a controversial map of India which earlier appeared on the career section of the Twitter website under the header ‘Tweep Life’. it had been revealed earlier last weekend that the map actually showed Jammu and Kashmir, and Ladakh, as a separate country. After the distorted map came under public scrutiny last weekend, it triggered an important censuring from netizens, and albeit Twitter got obviate the contentious map on late Monday night, demands of strict action against the microblogging platform were raised.
Twitter is facing heavy backlash in India amid its stand-off with the central government over compliance with the new IT rules within the country. The Uttar Pradesh Police had earlier summoned Maheshwari for questioning in reference to an allegedly misleading video of an elderly Muslim man being assaulted within the Loni area of Ghaziabad district. The firm was also issued a second notice by Ghaziabad police to hunt “account details” of the suspects accused by the police of posting and promoting the video.
Maheshwari, the director of Twitter India, had on Monday filed a caveat in anticipation of an appeal by the UP police against the relief granted to him by the Karnataka supreme court in reference to the investigation into the Loni assault case. Through his caveat, the Twitter official urged the highest court to listen to him before passing any order and be served a replica of any petition moved by Uttar Pradesh police.
Meanwhile, Twitter on Monday also appointed its US-based global legal policy director Jeremy Kessel because the new grievance officer for India. The rules, however, involve an Indian resident for the role.
