Troubles for US-based Twitter in India are not over yet, but the company's managing director Manish Maheshwari has been offered some relief. The Karnataka high court on Thursday granted Maheshwari interim relief in connection to the Ghaziabad assault video, which was surfaced on the microblogging platform a few days ago.
Maheshwari, who was served a notice by the Ghaziabad police on June 17 asking him to report to the Loni Border police station, moved the Karnataka HC seeking relief in the Loni assault case. While the police had set a seven-day deadline, which ended on Thursday, Maheshwari did not report to the police station, instead sought Karnataka HC's intervention.
Karnataka HC on Thursday granted interim relief to Twitter India MD and directed Ghaziabad police that no coercive action will be taken against Maheshwari. "If Ghaziabad police wants to examine Twitter MD then it can do so through virtual mode," a single bench of Justice G Narender said in the order.
The Court will further hear the case on June 28.
Why Twitter India MD refused to comply
Maheshwari's counsel and senior advocate Nagesh told the Court that his client is merely an employee of the US-based company and had no role in the circulation of the videos. The advocate submitted that the petitioner was neither a member of the board of directors of the company nor had any more authoritative role to play except for looking after the advertisement sales.
"Twitter is not controlled or administered by me. Company's name is Twitter Communications India Pvt Ltd. Who am I? An employee", Nagesh submitted.
Maheshwari, who lives in Bengaluru and is currently in Delhi, had earlier offered to join through video conference, but the UP police rejected his request. According to his counsel, the UP police had initially served summons under Section 160 of CrPC to appear as a witness, which was later changed to a notice served under Section 41A of CrPC, threatening him of arrest upon failing to report to the police station.
