Delhi Police sends notice to two Cong leaders to join probe

New Delhi: The Special Cell of Delhi Police has now served notices to two Congress leaders in connection with a preliminary enquiry initiated on a complaint that sought a clarification as to why Twitter decided to tag BJP leader Sambit Patra's tweet on an alleged Covid "toolkit" as "manupulative media".

The notices were served to Congress social media head Rohan Gupta and party spokesperson and head of the party's research cell, MV Rajeev Gowda.

Several BJP leaders have tweeted of a purported toolkit, allegedly created by the Congress party that criticises the Centre's handling of the pandemic, which has been debunked by fact-checkers as a forged document. The BJP blamed the Congress for creating the toolkit to "malign the nation" but Twitter had acted on the fact-checks and classified the posts as "manipulative".

Congress has called this "toolkit" an invention of the BJP and even filed a complaint with the Delhi Police for an FIR. But this complaint has not been converted to an FIR yet. Significantly, days after the Congress filed a complaint, Special Cell teams descended upon offices of Twitter in Delhi and Gurugram, seeking an explanation for why Patra's tweets were marked "manipulative". They had said they were looking into the "toolkit" matter, but not specifically the complaint filed by the Congress.

Sources close to the investigation have now told Millennium Post that BJP leaders may also be called to join the investigation in the case.

However, as for the notices served to Congress leaders Gupta and Gowda, sources said these were served in connection with the complaint filed by the Congress.

On May 18, Rajeev Gowda and Rohan Gupta had written to Delhi Police Commissioner and also filed their complaint with Delhi Police about the alleged toolkit. The Indian National Congress had accused BJP leaders of circulating "forged and fabricated" documents with the intent to "create communal disharmony and civil unrest in the country, among individuals, escalating violence, fuelling hate and spreading fake news.

"The hidden agenda of this team of fraudsters was to divert the attention from Modi government's mammoth failure in providing necessary aid to people of India amidst the current pandemic," the complaint read.

As for the complaint seeking clarification on why Patra's tweet was classified as "manipulative", the Delhi Police had said, "It appears that Twitter has some information which is not known to us on the basis of which they have classified it as such. This information is relevant to the inquiry. The Special Cell, which is conducting the inquiry, wants to find out the truth. Twitter, which has claimed to know the underlying truth, should clarify."

Even as the Delhi Police action against Twitter led to a political war of words between members of the ruling BJP and opposition parties, the social media giant is yet to respond to the Delhi Police or issue a public statement on the notice they have been served.

The social media company has also not made any public statement on the tags for BJP leaders' tweets since declaring them as "manipulative".

In fact, the Indian National Congress on Tuesday wrote to Twitter, seeking that it also tag as "manipulative" identical posts made through the official Twitter accounts of as many as 11 Union Ministers in the Modi government.

In a letter to Twitter's Lead for Legal, Policy and Trust and Safety Vijaya Gadde and its Deputy General Counsel and Vice President (Legal) Jim Baker, Congress general secretary and chief spokesperson Randeep Surjewala has sought stern action against 11 union ministers for allegedly spreading false and forged documents.

Surjewala has alleged that the "forged, fabricated material" and the claims made under the #CongressToolkitExposed by various ministers are identical to the material that has already been marked as "manipulative media" by Twitter.

He alleged that the subject matter of the forged Toolkit document was created by certain BJP leaders to gain undue and wrongful political advantage by spreading potentially dangerous, false and fabricated material through their Twitter handles against the Indian National Congress and its leaders.

The union ministers against whom the Congress has sought action are Giriraj Singh, Piyush Goyal, Smriti Irani, Ravi Shankar Prasad, Pralhad Joshi, Dharmendra Pradhan, Ramesh Pokhriyal 'Nishank', Thawarchand Gehlot, Harsh Vardhan, Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi and Gajendra Singh Shekhawat.

In his letter, Surjewala said, "It is a matter of fact that people tend to believe "true" and take on face value, any information that is put up directly by a Union Minister of the Government of India through his/her official/verified Twitter account."

"Hence, it becomes all the more imperative to tag, "manipulative media", on all such tweets made by ministers of the government of India on the above referred forged toolkit document created by the BJP," he said in his complaint.

"It is reasonable to expect that the aforementioned individuals will be dealt with the same yardstick as applied in other cases where the Twitter platform is misused to broadcast forged and fabricated material and all the aforesaid Tweets "manipulative media" by Twitter Inc," he said.