New Delhi: The Supreme Court has issued notice to Twitter India MD Mahesh Maheshwari on a petition filed by UP police challenging the order of Karnataka High court granting relief to him an arrest. 

Karnataka High court has granted interim relief to Mahesh Malleshwari, directing UP police not to take any coercive action against the petitioner in connection with a criminal complaint filed against him for allegedly misleading video showing assault on an elderly Muslim man in Loni area of Ghaziabad.

A division bench headed by Chief Justice of India N.V. Ramana and Justices Surya Kant and Hima Kohli issued notice to the respondents.

Karnataka High Court on June 24, given interim relief to Twitter MD, from appearing before the police in person regarding viral video.

Maheshwari had approached Karnataka High Court challenging the notice issued to him under Section 41A CrPC. This was pursuant to an FIR registered against Twitter and others in the backdrop of tweets on a video wherein an elderly Muslim man was asked to shave his beard and was forced to chant "Vande Mataram" and "Jai Shri Ram".

The Uttar Pradesh Police had contended that the alleged viral video was "communal angle" and said that Sufi Abdul Samad, the elderly man, was attacked by six men who were unhappy over the amulets, he had sold to the customers.

FIR has filed against Maheshwari which stated that the accused circulated a video of the incident on their Twitter handles without checking its authenticity and gave the video a communal angle with the intention to incite communal hatred between religious communities.

Meanwhile  Maheshwari had filed a caveat petition in the top court anticipating an appeal by the UP Police. By filing this petition, Maheshwari has ensured that no order is passed by the top court without hearing him. The UP Police will also be required to serve a copy of its petition to Maheshwari’s legal team prior to the hearing. reported in Bar and Bench.

In an order passed on July 23 this year, the High Court held that the petition challenging the notice issued to Maheshwari under Section 41A of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC) was maintainable.

Justice G Narendar of the High Court held that the Section 41A notice was resorted to as an arm-twisting method after Maheshwari did not respond to the initial notice sent to him under Section 160 CrPC. The Court also recorded,

"Provisions of the statute cannot be permitted to become tools of harassment. Respondent (UP Police) has not placed even an iota of material to demonstrate even prima facie involvement of the petitioner (Maheshwari).", Bar and Bench reported.