Ghaziabad assault case: Complaint against actor Swara Bhaskar, Twitter India head

New Delhi: A police complaint has been lodged against actor Swara Bhaskar, Arfa Khanum Sherwani, Asif Khan of Twitter India and Twitter India head Manish Maheshwari, for giving communal colour without fact-checking the truthfulness of the Ghaziabad assault video.

An official said they are certifying the complaint and they will register a case only after that.

The development comes two days after Ghaziabad Police police booked Twitter Inc, Twitter Communication India Pvt Ltd and others for circulating the same video without verifying the truth of the matter and shared it online with a communal angle with an intention to disrupt public peace and create a divide between religious groups.

The complaint was lodged at Delhi's Tilak Marg police station by advocate Amit Acharya.

In his complaint, Acharya alleged that Khan, Sherwani, Bhaskar, who have their social media account "got inspired from the incident and started a propaganda to spread hate amongst the citizens".

He said that these users have lakhs of followers on Twitter and knowing the fact that their tweets have an impact on society.

The advocates argued that the concerned tweets did not indicate their personal opinions, instead showed their intentions of the users to initiate conspiracy against religious harmony in the country to encourage hate and enmity between the religious groups.

He also alleged that the users "knowingly shared the false information and thereby committed offences under several sections of the Indian Penal Code".

Acharya in his complaint said that Saifi, the victim and the other miscreants already knew each other. And they beat him up and cut off his beard after the 'tabeez' that Saifi had sold to them did not show positive results as he guaranteed. The police took cognizance and arrested three persons in connection with the incident.

He said that the Ghaziabad Police also issued a statement on the intervening night of June 14 and 15 on its Twitter Handle regarding their findings.

He further accused Twitter, Twitter India and its MD, of not taking any action to remove these false tweets knowing the fact that the incident didn't have any communal angle.

He also said that the microblogging platform did not filter these tweets as manipulated media having the sole objective to disturb the peace and harmony among the citizens.

The advocate further alleged that this is not the first time that these users have been accused of spreading false and hateful information through these platforms.

"I request to get an FIR registered against Khan, Bhaskar, Sherwani, Maheshwari, Twitter Inc, Twitter India and investigate the matter leading to a legal end by getting the alleged persons punished as per the laws of the land," Acharya added as per reports.