Twitter India MD booked by UP cops for map showing J&K, Ladakh outside India

Twitter India Managing Director has been booked in another case registered by the Uttar Pradesh police, this time over the social media platform putting up a distorted map of India. The police in Uttar Pradesh’s Buland shaher district have lodged an FIR against Twitter India MD Manish Maheshwari and News Partnerships Head Amrita Tripathi, both named as accused and booked under Indian Penal Code section 505 (2) (public mischief). The map in question, which appeared on the career section of Twitter website under the header ‘Tweep Life’, had shown the Union Territories of Ladakh, Jammu and Kashmir outside India, triggering outrage on social media. Twitter removed that map on Monday evening.

“The world map does not show Ladakh, Jammu and Kashmir as parts of India. This is not a coincidence. This act has hurt the sentiments of Indians, including me,” Bajrang Dal’s western UP convenor Praveen Bhati said in the complaint.

This is the second case filed against the Twitter India MD. He had earlier been summoned by the Ghaziabad police in connection with its probe into the viral video of an elderly Muslim man being attacked on camera. Maheshwari had moved the Karnataka High Court for relief and the court had restrained the Ghaziabad police from initiating any coercive action against Manish Maheshwari till June 29. On Tuesday, June 28, the Uttar Pradesh government moved the Supreme Court against the relief granted to the Twitter MD.