Bengaluru, June 29: The Karnataka High Court Tuesday postponed the hearing of a case related to a summons issued by the Uttar Pradesh police against Twitter India MD Manish Maheshwari to July 5.
When the case came up today, the Uttar Pradesh police sought an adjournment, following which the single bench of Justice G Narendar who is hearing the matter posted it for July 5.
Manish Maheshwari, who lives in Bengaluru, had moved the court against the summons issued by the Ghaziabad police in a probe related to the assault of an elderly Muslim man. The Twitter MD was asked to report at the Loni Border police station on June 24 to get his statement recorded.
In an earlier order, the court had restrained the Ghaziabad police from initiating any coercive action against Maheshwari. Justice Narendar had also maintained if the police wanted to examine Maheshwari, they could do so through virtual mode.
In a video clip, which surfaced on social media on June 14, the elderly Muslim man, Abdul Shamad Saifi, alleged he was thrashed by some young men and asked to chant “Jai Shri Ram.” The Ghaziabad Police had on June 15 lodged an FIR against Twitter Inc, Twitter Communications India, news website The Wire, journalists Mohammad Zubair and Rana Ayyub, Congress' Salman Nizami, Masqoor Usmani, Dr Sama Mohammad and writer Saba Naqvi for sharing the clip. The police, who had ruled out a communal angle in the incident, claimed the video was shared to cause communal unrest. The journalists have however said that they were only reporting on the victim's version and the police was targeting them
Earlier in the day, the UP police moved the Supreme Court against the interim relief granted to Maheshwari. The MD had filed a caveat in the apex court, asking that he be heard before any orders are passed in the matter.
Meanwhile, the Twitter India MD was Tuesday booked in a separate case by the Bulandshahr police after a complaint was filed over a distorted map of India. The map, which appeared on the career section of the Twitter website under the header 'Tweep Life', had shown the Union Territories of Ladakh, Jammu and Kashmir outside India. This had triggered an outrage on social media. Twitter later removed that map.
