The notice issued by the Uttar Pradesh police to Twitter India managing director Manish Maheshwari was dismissed by the Karnataka high court on Friday, stating that the notice was Unconstitutional. The court granted the Ghaziabad police the right to question Maheshwari in his workplace or at his Bengaluru residence through virtual mode.
The notice under Section 41(A) CrPC shall be considered as Section 160 of CrPC, according to a single bench led by Justice G Narendra. Maheshwari’s personal presence was requested as part of a probe into a video that the Uttar Pradesh police claimed was circulated with the intent of causing communal strife.
The Ghaziabad police, according to Justice Narendra, did not provide any evidence that would show even the petitioner’s prima facie participation. The court further stated that the statute’s provisions under Section 41(A) CrPC should not be allowed to be used as “harassment instruments.”
“In the background of the fact that section 41(a) notice was issued by malafide, the writ petition (filed by Maheshwari seeking quashing) is maintainable. Accordingly, the notice under section Annexure A notice shall be read as section 160 of the CrPC,” the court said.
“The action of the respondent (Ghaziabad police) trying to invoke section 41(A) of the CrPC gives no doubt in the mind of the court that the same has been resorted to as an arm-twisting method as the petitioner refused to heed to the notice under section 160 of the CrPC,” the court further added according to news agency PTI.
On June 21, the Ghaziabad Police Department issued a notice under Section 41-A of the CrPC, requesting that the Twitter India MD report to the Loni Border Police Station on June 24. Maheshwari filed a petition with the Karnataka high court, which on June 24 ordered the Ghaziabad Police not to take any coercive action against him. Police can conduct a virtual examination of Maheshwari, according to Justice Narendra.
Twitter Inc. and Twitter Communications India Pvt. Ltd. were also arrested by Ghaziabad police. Ltd. (Twitter India), news website The Wire, journalists Mohammed Zubair and Rana Ayyub, as well as Congress leaders Salman Nizami, Maskoor Usmani, Shama Mohamed, and writer Saba Naqvi, have been sued over the distribution of a video in which an elderly man was thrashed by five youths and forced to chant slogans in June. According to police, the video was circulated with the intent of causing community disturbance.
