Spl Cell teams arrive at Twitter offices over "manipulated" tag for Patra's tweet

New Delhi: The Special Cell of the Delhi Police, a unit usually assigned terror-related cases, on Monday sent as over half a dozen of its officers to the offices of Twitter in Delhi and Gurugram to "serve them a notice", seeking clarification about why they had classified BJP leader Sambit Patra's tweet on a "Covid-19 toolkit" as "manipulated media".

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 "manipulated".

The Delhi Police has said it is looking into a complaint which has sought a clarification from Twitter about why a tweet by Patra was tagged

"manipulated".

"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," Delhi Police said in their statement.

In the initial notice to Twitter, addressed to Manish Maheshwari, Managing Director (MD), the police said, "Whereas a preliminary enquiry is being conducted pertaining to the Toolkit which is allegedly released by Indian National Congress. And whereas during the course of investigation it has come to our knowledge that you are acquainted with the facts of the matter and are in possession of information with regard to the same. You are therefore requested to be present in the office of undersigned (DCP Special Cell) for investigation with all relevant documents."

When asked why half a dozen officials had descended upon the offices of the social media company, the Delhi Police said, "This was necessitated as we wanted to ascertain who is the right person to serve a notice, as replies by Twitter India MD have been very ambiguous."

Earlier, the Congress had filed a police complaint seeking an FIR against Nadda, Irani, BJP general secretary (organisation) B L Santosh, and Patra.

The INC 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 status of the probe in this complaint is unclear.