Police complaint filed in Delhi against Swara Bhasker, Arfa Khanum, Twitter MD Manish Maheshwari

A complaint has been lodged at Tilak Marg Police Station, New Delhi against Twitter, Twitter India's MD Manish Maheshwari, actress Swara Bhasker, Journalist Arfa Khanum Sherwani and Md Asif Khan for tweets on a video from Ghaziabad showing a Muslim man's beard being chopped off by some attackers and wherein he was allegedly forced to chant "Jai Shree Ram" and "Vande Mataram"..The complainant, Amit Acharya, has alleged that these persons gave the incident a communal colour without checking the truthfulness of the same. He further alleges that tweets on the video were made on social media with the motive of hampering peace and harmony among religious groups. .As such, Acharya has urged the Delhi Police to file a First Information Report (FIR) against the accused citing offences under Sections 153,153A, 295-A, 505, 120-B and 34 of the Indian Penal Code..As per the complaint, the accused twitter users "got inspired from the incident and started a propaganda to spread hate amongst the citizens.".Acharya's complaint further highlights that following an investigation by the Ghaziabad police, it was found that the incident involved a personal dispute. As narrated in the complaint:."... Abdul Shamad Saifi and the other miscreant already knew each other. Abdul Shamad Saifi had sold "taweez" to them guaranteeing positive results and when it did not generate the required positive results, the miscreants beat him up. The police officials took the cognizance of the matter and arrested 3 persons. In this regard itself, Ghaziabad police also issued a press note through their twitter handle @ghaziabadpolice on 14/15.06.2021 midnight, giving clarification on the case. The press note stated that miscreants involved persons from both Hindu and Muslim religious groups.".Acharya has registered grievance that despite such clear information being available, the accused Twitter users communalised the incident and spread hate..The complaint is also made against Twitter Inc, Twitter Communications Private Limited and Twitter India's Managing Director, Manish Maheshwari on the ground that Twitter did not take any steps to remove the false tweets despite knowing that the incident did not have any kind of communal angle. .Objection is also raised to Twitter not filtering these tweets as "manipulated media having the sole objective to disturb the peace and harmony among the citizens of India.".The development comes days after the Uttar Pradesh Police registered an FIR against Twitter, news portal The Wire, journalists Rana Ayyub and Saba Naqvi, Congress politicians Shama Mohamed, Salman Nizami and Maskoor Usmani and Alt news co-founder Mohammed Zubair among others for tweeting the Ghaziabad video. .UP Police registers FIR against Twitter, The Wire, Rana Ayyub, Shama Mohamed, Mohammed Zubair for tweeting Ghaziabad attack video.While the video was portrayed as an attack on Muslim man by Hindus, the UP Police has maintained that the attackers were both Hindus and Muslims and the reason for the attack was a personal dispute between the man and his attackers..The FIR was, therefore, registered against for offences under Sections 153 (provocation to cause riot), 153A (promoting enmity between religious groups), 295A (insulting religious beliefs), 505 (public mischief), 120B (criminal conspiracy) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC)..In a related development, Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad also issued a statement online yesterday slamming Twitter for failing to comply with the recently introduced Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021..What happened in UP illustrates Twitter’s arbitrariness in fighting fake news: Law Minister slams Twitter citing failure to comply with IT Rules.A reference was made to fake news being allowed to spread on the online platform with respect to an incident in Uttar Pradesh, although the Law Minister's statement does not divulge specific details.