Congress leaders served notices in ‘toolkit’ case, BJP’s Sambit Patra likely to be summoned

The notices come a day after the Delhi Police visited Twitter India’s Delhi and Gurgaon offices to ostensibly serve the social media platform a notice in the case.

Written by Mahender Singh Manral

New Delhi | Updated: May 25, 2021 11:25 AM IST

2 min read

A team of Delhi Police's Special Cell visits the Twitter India's Lado Sarai office in connection with the probe into the alleged 'COVID toolkit matter, in New Delhi, Monday, May 24, 2021. (PTI Photo)

The Delhi Police Special Cell on Tuesday served notices to Congress social media head Rohan Gupta and party spokesperson M V Rajeev Gowda in connection with the BJP’s “toolkit” allegations. BJP spokesperson Sambit Patra is also likely to be summoned for questioning in the coming days.

The notices come a day after the Delhi Police visited Twitter India’s Delhi and Gurgaon offices to ostensibly serve the social media platform a notice in the case. They decided to physically serve the notice, days after Twitter flagged some posts by ruling party leaders alleging a Congress plot to malign the Prime Minister and the central government as “manipulated media”. Earlier, the Centre had objected to Twitter tagging some posts on the alleged “toolkit” as “manipulated media” — one of the posts was by BJP spokesperson Sambit Patra.

A senior police officer said they are, as of now, conducting preliminary enquiry before registering any FIR and summoning all the concerned people and organisations allegedly involved in the matter. “We served notice to Twitter as we want to know what information Twitter has about the toolkit and why they chose to give the ‘manipulated media’ label. Apart from Twitter, we have also served notices to the complainants, representatives of Congress, asking them to join the investigation to explain the whole sequence of events. We are also going to serve notice to BJP spokesperson Sambit Patra, for questioning in the coming days,” an officer said.

On Monday, Delhi Police PRO Chinmoy Biswal said the action was “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,” he said.

According to a Delhi Police official, the Congress complaint mentioned tweets by Patra and others and asked police and Twitter to take action against them.

Mahender Singh Manral

Mahender Singh Manral is an Assistant Editor with the national bureau of The Indian Express. He is known for his impactful and breaking stories. He covers the Ministry of Home Affairs, Investigative Agencies, National Investigative Agency, Central Bureau of Investigation, Law Enforcement Agencies, Paramilitary Forces, and internal security. Prior to this, Manral had extensively reported on city-based crime stories along with that he also covered the anti-corruption branch of the Delhi government for a decade. He is known for his knack for News and a detailed understanding of stories. He also worked with Mail Today as a senior correspondent for eleven months. He has also worked with The Pioneer for two years where he was exclusively covering crime beat. During his initial days of the career he also worked with The Statesman newspaper in the national capital, where he was entrusted with beats like crime, education, and the Delhi Jal Board. A graduate in Mass Communication, Manral is always in search of stories that impact lives. ... Read More

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