Loni Assault Video: Twitter India Chief Moves Karnataka HC To Challenge Ghaziabad Police Notice

Maheshwari had declared himself available for questioning via video call on Monday. However, the Ghaziabad insisted on his physical presence.

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Ghaziabad: Twitter India's Managing Director Manish Maheshwari moved to Karnataka High Court and filed a writ petition challenging the police notice under Section 41A.

Maheshwari was expected to appear in person before the Ghaziabad Police on Thursday in connection with a probe related to the assault of an elderly Muslim man here recently. 

He did not reach the police station at the given time and is expected to reach here by noon, Circle Officer (Loni), Atul Kumar Sonkar, told PTI. The Twitter India MD, who lives in Bengaluru in Karnataka, was issued notice by the Ghaziabad Police on June 21 and asked to report at its Loni Border police station at 10.30 am on Thursday to get his statement recorded in the case, the officials added.

“Failing to appear before the police would be considered as non-cooperation in the investigation and action will be taken as per law,” reads the notice to Twitter India MD by the Ghaziabad Police, ANI has earlier reported.

Maheshwari had declared himself available for questioning via video call on Monday. However, the Ghaziabad insisted on his physical presence. According to media reports, they also served notice to Twitter India's Resident Grievance Officer, Dharmendra Chatur, to report for questioning.

The Ghaziabad Police had on June 15th 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, claims he was allegedly thrashed by some young men who also asked him to chant 'Jai Shri Ram' on June 5th.

The police claim the video was shared to cause communal unrest.

Earlier, PTI reported, that the company had "withheld" 50 tweets after receiving a legal request to do so. PTI sources said the tweets contained content related to the video clip.