Delhi Police closes probe into Congress toolkit complaint

Police sources said the investigation team of the New Delhi Range of the Special Cell was asked a few days ago by their senior officials to close their inquiry.

“It was an inquiry, we were trying to understand the whole chain before approaching the alleged persons, but recently, we have been told by the complainants that they are more keen to pursue in Chhattisgarh, so we did not approach Patra,” an officer said.

In May, BJP leaders tweeted a document seemingly printed on the letterhead of the ‘AICC Research Department’ and alleged it was a toolkit to “destroy” Prime Minister Modi’s image. Twitter had then marked tweets by some BJP leaders, including Patra’s, as ‘manipulated media’.

Meanwhile in Chhattisgarh, an FIR was filed against Patra and Raman Singh in connection with the alleged forgery of the Congress party letterhead and its subsequent misuse.

Before closing their inquiry, police had questioned Twitter India Managing Director Manish Maheshwari in Bengaluru, visited Twitter India’s office in New Delhi to serve a notice, and summoned the Congress’s social media head Rohan Gupta and party spokesperson M V Rajeev Gowda, who filed a complaint against BJP leaders for their tweets alleging a ‘Congress toolkit’. Police, however, didn’t question Patra, whose tweet was among those flagged by Twitter as “manipulated”.

On May 25, Gowda said that they received notices from Delhi Police and have conveyed that they will pursue the complaint in Chhattisgarh, where police have registered an FIR naming Patra and former chief minister Raman Singh for their “toolkit” tweets.