A day after the Delhi Police sent a notice to Twitter India offices in Delhi and Gurugram in association with a probe into a complaint about the alleged 'COVID toolkit’, Congress leader on Tuesday took a jibe at the Centre and tweeted about “Truth”.
In a tweet, Rahul Gandhi said, "Truth remains unafraid."
The Delhi Police on Monday has enquired for clarification from Twitter in connection with a tweet by BJP leader Sambit Patra about a reported toolkit that was released by the Congress party that the microblogging site tagged as “manipulated media.”
As per Twitter, it "may label tweets that include media (videos, audio, and images) that have been deceptively altered or fabricated".
"Delhi police team went to the Twitter office to serve a notice to Twitter, as a part of a routine process. 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,” Delhi Police said in a statement.
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Alleging the raids on Twitter office’s as cowardly, Congress said it exposes “lame-duck attempts" by the Delhi Police to protect a "fraudulent toolkit" by BJP leaders.
Rajeev Gowda, who heads the Congress’s research department, stated, “This is an effort to cover up the whole thing. The BJP hatched a conspiracy to cook up a forged document and they have been caught. Now they are trying to browbeat Twitter. They have no legal authority to do that.”
Delhi Police has been conducting a preliminary enquiry into the alleged Congress toolkit and had served notice to Twitter’s managing director Manish Maheshwari on May 21. "We are inquiring into a complaint in which clarification is sought from Twitter regarding the classification of a tweet by (BJP spokesperson) Sambit Patra as 'manipulative'. It appears that Twitter has some information that is not known to us based on which it has 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," the statement said.
Sambit Patra has shared details of an alleged toolkit of the Congress accusing it of defaming Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s image and creating an unbiased narrative over India’s management of the Covid crisis and the Central Vista project. Twitter had described Patra’s tweet as "manipulated media" last week.
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Patra’s tweet spurred controversy last week as Congress approached Delhi Police to lodge an FIR against Patra, BJP national President J.P. Nadda, party leader B.L. Santhosh, Union Minister Smriti Irani and others for forgery. The party had refuted the allegations, claiming that BJP is generating a fake 'toolkit' to defame it.