Karnataka High Court’s relief for Twitter India MD Manish Maheshwari

Granting interim relief to Twitter MD Manish Maheshwari, the Karnataka High Court has reportedly directed the Ghaziabad Police not to take any coercive steps against him

The Karnataka High Court has granted interim relief to Twitter MD Manish Maheshwari and it has directed the Ghaziabad Police not to take any coercive steps against him. The Karnataka High Court has also said that if Ghaziabad Police wants to examine the Twitter MD then it can do so through virtual mode. The Karnataka High Court was hearing Twitter MD's petition against the notice issued by Ghaziabad, UP Police under Sec 41A CrPC. The Ghaziabad Police had issued him notice in connection with the case where a man was thrashed & his beard chopped off in Loni.

According to media reports, a single-judge bench of Justice G Narender said  "this matter needs further consideration" and reserved orders till June 29. "UP Police cannot arrest (till then)..." Justice Narender said, as reported by NDTV.  Maheshwari, it seems, told the Karnataka HC that the UP police’s notices to him changed from “witness to accused” in the span of couple of days.

Twitter Managing Director Manish Maheshwari's counsel had informed Karnataka HC that his client is living in Bengaluru. The counsel said that Supreme Court and High Court have said that statement can be recorded through video-conferencing but Ghaziabad Police wants his personal presence.

The Ghaziabad Police had filed FIR against nine entities, including Twitter India, in connection with the Loni incident.

In the FIR, the Police had said, "There is no communal angle to the incident in Loni where a man was thrashed and his beard was chopped off. The following entities - The Wire, Rana Ayyub, Mohammad Zubair, Dr Shama Mohammed, Saba Naqvi, Maskoor Usmani, Salman Nizami - without checking the fact, started giving communal colour to the incident on Twitter and suddenly they started spreading messages to disrupt the peace and bring differences between the religious communities."

(With ANI inputs)