UP seeks urgent listing of plea in SC against Karnataka HC order quashing notice to Twitter official

The Karnataka High Court has interfered with the summons issued to the then Twitter Managing Director by Uttar Pradesh police, the law officer said

The Uttar Pradesh government on Wednesday asked the Supreme Court to urgently take up its petition against the Karnataka High Court's decision to quash a notice of personal appearance issued to the then Twitter India Managing Director Manish Maheshwari for probe into a viral video case.

Solicitor General Tushar Mehta mentioned the matter before a bench presided over by Chief Justice N V Ramana saying the petition filed last month has yet not been listed for hearing.

"Let us see it. We will give a date," the bench said.

The UP government has filed a special leave petition against the Karnataka High Court's order of July 23, quashing the notice as mala fide. Maheshwari has last month been transferred to the US as a senior director in the Revenue Strategy and Operations department of the social media company.

He also filed a caveat, seeking a hearing before the top court before passing any order.

On June 24, the Karnataka High Court had granted protection from arrest to Maheshwari in an FIR lodged by Loni Police in Ghaziabad.

The Ghaziabad Police issued notice to Twitter MD asking him to appear at Loni Police Station for questioning on a probe related to the viral video of the assault.

Earlier, Twitter India officials had informed the police they are ready to be available for questioning via video conferencing which was rejected by the police.

The Ghaziabad Police had on June 15 booked Twitter Inc, Twitter Communications India, news website The Wire, journalists Mohammed Zubair and Rana Ayyub, besides Congress leaders Salman Nizami, Maskoor Usmani, Shama Mohamed and writer Saba Naqvi.

They were booked over the circulation of a video in which the elderly man, Abdul Shamad Saifi, claimed that he was allegedly thrashed by some young men who also asked him to chant ''Jai Shri Ram'' on June 5. The police claim the video was shared to cause communal unrest.

The police have maintained the assault took place because the accused were unhappy about the ''tabeez'' (amulets) sold to them by Saifi, a resident of adjoining Bulandshahr district, and ruled out any communal angle in the case.

In the video that triggered a nationwide reaction, Saifi purportedly says he was attacked by some young men and forced to chant ''Jai Shri Ram''. But, according to the district police, he has not made any such allegations in his FIR lodged on June 7, two days after the incident.

The June 15 FIR stated that the Ghaziabad Police had issued a statement with facts of the incident but despite that the accused did not remove the video from their Twitter handles.

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