Twitter India MD quizzed by Delhi Police in Congress 'toolkit' case: Sources

In a huge development, sources revealed that the Delhi Police has interrogated Twitter India Managing Director Manish Maheshwari in the Congress 'toolkit' case. The quizzing reportedly took place on May 31 after members of the Special Cell team flew down to Bengaluru. This assumes significance as the police had found his replies on the rationale for flagging the toolkit as manipulated media "very ambiguous".On May 24, the police visited Twitter's Delhi and Gurugram offices to serve a notice in this connection. 

The Congress 'toolkit' controversy

Addressing a press briefing on May 18, Sambit Patra shared the contents of a purported toolkit and slammed Congress' attempts to spread misinformation in the country. He covered sections such as 'Politicising and Allowing Super Spreader Kumbh', 'Questions on PM CARES', 'Special treatment of Gujarat', 'Choosing vanity over people's lives', 'Amplify work of frontal Congress organizations' and 'Prime Minister Modi's image'. The document also urges volunteers to use phrases such as 'Modi strain', ‘Missing’ Amit Shah, ‘Quarantined’ Jaishankar, ‘Sidelined’ Rajnath Singh, ‘Insensitive’ Nirmala Sitharaman. 

Moreover, it talked about magnifying the crisis using images of dead bodies. But, Congress immediately issued a denial and filed a police complaint against the BJP national spokesperson, party chief JP Nadda, Union Minister Smriti Irani, BL Santhosh and others. It alleged that the saffron party sought to divert the attention from the Centre's "mammoth failure" in providing relief to the people of India.

Claiming that BJP forged the letterhead of the AICC Research Department and printed false content on the same, it demanded action against the aforesaid leaders under the relevant sections of the IPC and the IT Act. At the same time, the Sonia Gandhi-led party admitted the authenticity of a 6-page research note put by BJP leaders titled 'Central Vista Redevelopment: Vanity Project Amidst The Pandemic'. AICC Research Department chairman Rajeev Gowda made this revelation in defence of Congress' stance.

Chhattisgarh HC stays FIR against BJP leaders

Even as the Delhi Police was inquiring into the complaint filed by the Congress party, an FIR was registered in Raipur against Sambit Patra and ex-CM Raman Singh on the plaint of NSUI state president Akash Sharma. Quashing the FIR, the single-judge bench of Justice Narendra Kumar Vyas ruled that the continuation of the probe will be nothing but an abuse of the process of law. Maintaining that the FIR has been registered with "political motives", he added that the allegation of "forgery with intent to harm reputation" is not made out.