UP govt moves SC against Karnataka HC's protection to Twitter MD

On June 24, the Karnataka High Court had granted protection from arrest to Manish Maheshwari in an FIR lodged by Loni Police in Ghaziabad

The Uttar Pradesh government has moved the Supreme Court against the Karnataka High Court's order, granting protection to Twitter MD Manish Maheshwari in a case related to the viral video of an attack on an elderly man in Ghaziabad.

Maheshwari, for his part, also filed a caveat, seeking a hearing before before the top court before the passing of any order.

On June 24, the Karnataka High Court had granted protection from arrest to Maheshwari in an FIR lodged by Loni Police in Ghaziabad.

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The Ghaziabad Police issued a notice to the Twitter MD, asking him to appear at Loni police station for questioning in the probe related to the viral video of the assault.

Earlier, Twitter India officials had informed the police that they are ready to be available for questioning via video conferencing, which was rejected by the police.

The Ghaziabad Police had on June 15 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.

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They were booked over the circulation of a video in which an elderly man, Abdul Samad Saifi, claimed that he was allegedly thrashed by some young men, who also asked him to chant ''Jai Shri Ram'', on June 5. The police claim the video was shared to cause communal unrest.

The police have maintained that the assault took place because the accused were unhappy about the ''tabeez'' (amulets) sold to them by Saifi, a resident of adjoining Bulandshahr district, and ruled out any communal angle in the case.

In the video that triggered nationwide reaction, Saifi purportedly says he was attacked by some young men and forced to chant ''Jai Shri Ram''. But, according to the district police, he has not made any such allegations in his FIR lodged on June 7, two days after the incident.

The June 15 FIR stated that the Ghaziabad Police had issued a statement with facts of the incident, but despite that, the accused did not remove the video from their Twitter handles.