The Delhi Police on Monday launched raids at the offices of Twitter India in Delhi and Gurgaon. The search and raid operation, according to news agency ANI, were being carried out by the special cell of the Delhi Police. However, Delhi Police officials were left disappointed as they did not find anyone at Twitter offices as most employees are working from home due to the lockdown.
The Centre’s Narendra Modi government, who the Delhi Police report to, had recently expressed its displeasure over Twitter tagging some of its leaders’ tweets as ‘manipulated media.’
A team of Delhi Police Special cell is carrying out a search at the Twitter India office in Delhi. Details awaited.
— ANI (@ANI) May 24, 2021
One of those leaders whose tweet was declared as ‘manipulated media’ was BJP spokesperson Sambit Patra.
The Delhi Police had earlier also raided Twitter India’s TEC Qutab, Level 1 (Crescent Building, Lado Sarai Mehrauli) office. Quoting the Delhi Police, ABP News reported that cops were ‘enquiring into a complaint in which clarification is sought from Twitter on the classification of a tweet by Sambit Patra as ‘manipulative’.”
The Congress had filed police complaints against Patra, and other BJP leaders including party president JP Nadda and Union Minister Smriti Irani. Police in Chhattisgarh had summoned BJP spokesperson Sambit Patra and the saffron party’s national vice president, Raman Singh, for allegedly sharing a fake ‘Toolkit’ in a bid to defame the Congress.
This was after the BJP sensationally accused the Congress of releasing a toolkit to tarnish the image of the country and Prime Minister Narendra Modi by calling the new strain of the coronavirus the ‘India strain’ or the ‘Modi strain.’ The Congress, for its part, had accused the BJP of using forged documents to defame it.
The Centre’s Narendra Modi government has come global criticism for its inept handling of the pandemic.
