Varanasi police drop names of Google CEO, 3 others from FIR
VARANASI: The police in Varanasi dropped the names of Google CEO Sundar Pichai, Google India Pvt Ltd and two company officials from a First Information Report (FIR) which was registered against 18 people, including them, at Bhelupur police station of Varanasi on February 6 over a video that allegedly contained a defamatory remark about Prime Minister Narendra Modi, said senior superintendent of police (Varanasi) Amit Pathak on Friday.
The SSP said the names of Pichai, Google India Pvt Ltd, two top officials, including manager Sanjay Kumar Gupta and director Kenneth Hohee Yi, were removed from the case since no evidence of their involvement was found in the investigation.
Among the others named in the case are Ghazipur districtbased musicians, a music company and a recording studio.
A senior police officer said the complainant, Girija Shankar Jaiswal, a resident of Bhelupur area in Varanasi, on February 6, alleged that he came across the song video in a WhatsApp group.
The police officer also said Jaiswal claimed that a Ghazipur district-based musician and his wife sang the song and also posted the video on Facebook.
When he called up the Ghazipur district-based musician to object to the video containing the defamatory remark, the musician and his supporters threatened him, according to Jaiswal, the officer said.
Jaiswal said he got over 8,500 threat calls on his cell phone after he objected to the video that he first came across in the WhatsApp group and later on YouTube, the police officer added.
Jaiswal filed an application in a court in Varanasi, appealing that an FIR be registered in this connection, the officer said and added that on the directive of the court, the FIR was registered at the Bhelupur police station on February 6 under Indian Penal Code sections 504 (intentional insult with intent to provoke breach of the peace), 506 (criminal intimidation), 500 (defamation) and 120B (criminal conspiracy).
Charges under the Information Technology Act’s Section 67 (publishing or transmitting obscene material) have also been invoked against the accused, according to the FIR, the officer said.
Google’s response over the case is awaited.