UP Police Left Red-Faced As Karnataka HC Quashes Notice To Twitter India MD

Bengaluru, July 23 (TNA) The Uttar Pradesh Police ended up with a red face on Friday as the Karnataka High Court (HC) termed its notice to the Managing Director of Twitter India Manish Maheshwari as a "tool of harassment".

Hearing the petition filed by the Twitter official, the court not only quashed the notice, issued under Section 41A of the Code of Criminal Procedure, in relation to the FIR registered over the videos posted in Twitter showing the assault of a Muslim man in Ghaziabad, but also called it "malafide".

The High Court said that the UP Police issued the coercive notice without ascertaining if the MD of Twitter Communications India Private Ltd (TCIPL), had any control over the contents posted on the micro-blogging site.

The invocation of Section 41A, the court went on to say, was resorted to as an arm-twisting method after Maheshwari did not respond to initial notice under Section 160 CrPC". The court also said that the notice was malafide and that the petitioner to be treated as a witness, who doesn't need to travel to UP to testify.