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News Desk: The Uttar Pradesh Police on Tuesday registered the second FIR against two Twitter India officials for carrying a distorted map of India on its website’s career section. Earlier this month, the UP Police had booked Twitter in connection with an incident in Ghaziabad’s Loni where an elderly Muslim man was allegedly assaulted.
The latest FIR has been registered on the basis of a complaint of a local Bajrang Dal leader in Bulandshahr. Twitter India Head Manish Maheshwari News Partnership Head Amrita Tripathi have been named.
The UP Police has booked the social media giant’s officials under Section 505(2) of the Indian Penal Code and Section 74 of the Information Technology Act.
Section 505(2) punishes anyone who publishes a statement that is likely to create feelings of hatred between different groups with up to three years in prison and a fine, while Section 74 punishes anyone who publishes anything for a fraudulent purpose with imprisonment of up to two years and fine of Rs. 1 lakh. Either way, the officials could be facing jail time if any merit is found in the proceedings that follow.
UP Police’s second FIR
This is the second FIR filed by the UP Police against Twitter officials. Last week, Maheshwari was summoned by the UP Police in the case pertaining to the assault on an elderly Muslim man in the Loni area of the Ghaziabad district.
The Twitter India head, who is a Bangalore resident, had approached the Karnataka High Court challenging the FIR pertaining to the Ghaziabad incident and obtained a favourable order through which the UP Police was restrained from taking any coercive action against him. The Court observed that the matter required to be heard in detail on merits.
Days after the Karnataka High Court order, UP Police expressed its intention of approaching the Supreme Court challenging the order.
Instead, Maheshwari moved the apex court himself with a caveat petition stating that no interim order ought to be passed in the matter without giving him an opportunity of being heard.
The appeal against the Karnataka High Court order challenging the protection from arrest granted to Manish Maheshwari has also been filed in the Supreme Court now by the UP Police.
Twitter vs Indian government
UP Police has undoubtedly been proactive in its prosecution of Twitter and its employees amidst the continuous stand-off that is being witnessed between the Centre and Twitter over the new IT Rules.
But at the same time, sources suggest that Twitter is likely to resort to legal proceedings to challenge any and every action taken against the company after the Government stated that it had “lost its intermediary protection” after failing to comply with the new rules.
In the absence of an India-based grievance officer of the social media giant, an employee like Amrita Tripathi, who is the second accused in the latest UP Police FIR, is likely to fall in the line of fire in any ongoing investigations, while Maheshwari is likely to bear the brunt of all actions that will be taken against the company.
With the standoff now having reached the Supreme Court, UP Police and Twitter both are expected to come with all guns blazing before the Apex Court on the day of arguments.
