Available for questioning through video conferencing, Twitter India head tells UP police

New Delhi, June 21: Twitter, India chief has told the UP police that he would available for questioning only through video conferencing

India's Twitter head, Manish Maheshwari was last month questioned by the Delhi Police in the case involving an alleged "Congress Toolkit," sources said.

Maheshwari, the Managing Director of Twitter in India was questioned by the Special Cell of the Delhi Police in Bengaluru on May 31, sources also informed. The questioning took place a week after the teams of the Delhi Police visited the offices of Twitter in Delhi and Gurgaon after serving two notices over BJP leader, Sambit Patra's tweet on an alleged "Congress Toolkit," being marked as manipulated media.

The inormation comes a day after Twitter lost the safe harbour immunity in India after it failed to comply with the new IT rules, which requires it to appoint key officers in India.

The development came shortly after a case was filed in Uttar Pradesh against Twitter over posts on a viral video of an assault that the police say tried to incite communal violence.

The rules came into effect on May 25 and Twitter is yet to comply with them and due to this their protection as an intermediary has gone. Twitter is liable for penal actions against any Indian law just as any publisher is, sources said.

Twitter was accused of not removing misleading content linked to an incident in Ghaziabad on June 5, in which an elderly Muslim man had alleged that his beard was cut off and he was forced to chant Jai Shri Ram and Vande Mataram by a group.

The police however said that the incident was not a communal one. In fact the man in question Sufi Abdul Samad was attacked by six men-both Hindus and Muslims as they were unhappy with the amulets he had sold to them. The FIR charged Twitter and several journalists for inciting communal sentiments with posts sharing the allegations made by the man of the assault.