A day after lodging an FIR against Google CEO Sundar Pichai and three other officials of the company in connection with an alleged case of defaming prime minister Narendra Modi, the Uttar Pradesh activist dropped their names as they failed to find any evidence against them.
According to the police sources, the FIR was registered at Bhelupur police station in Varanasi after an RTI activist lodged a complaint that he had received thousands of threat calls after he objected to a video, which allegedly defamed the PM.
The activist, a resident of Varanasi, claimed that the video was uploaded on WhatsApp and later YouTube. He alleged that he was also tagged in the video.
The activist said that he had written to the social media platforms to remove the alleged video but they did not do so forcing him to approach the court.
Later on the direction of the court, an FIR was registered against 18 people, including Pichai and three other senior officials of Google under sections 504 (intentional insult), 506 (criminal intimidation), 500 (defamation) and 120B (criminal conspiracy) besides the IT Act.
A senior police official said in Varanasi on Friday that the names of Pichai and other Google officials were removed from the FIR after no evidence was found against them during the investigation.
''The investigation against others is going and appropriate action will be taken if the evidence is found against them,'' the official said.
(Published 12 February 2021, 07:37 IST)
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