DELHI POLICE NOTICE TO CONG LEADERS IN TOOLKIT CASE

The tussle over a social media “toolkit” to allegedly defame the government intensified on Tuesday as it emerged that two Congress functionaries were sent notices by the Delhi Police to join the investigation in a complaint they originally filed, even as their party urged Twitter to tag as “manipulated media” posts by 11 Union ministers for “spreading false and malicious propaganda”.

The row began when BJP leader Sambit Patra shared an image purportedly showing Congress documents on how to criticise the government and the PM. The post has now been flagged as “manipulated media” by Twitter.

On Monday, Congress spokesperson Randeep Surjewala in a letter to Twitter, flagged posts by Union ministers such as Piyush Goyal, Harsh Vardhan and Ravi Shankar Prasad for action. “...people tend to believe ‘true’ and take on face value, any information that is put up directly by a Union Minister of the Government of India,” the letter said.

The Supreme Court on Tuesday sought responses from the West Bengal government and the state police on the post-election violence that purportedly resulted in the mass exodus of women and children.

The order came on a plea by a Delhi-based social worker Arun Mukherjee and four others, who demanded an independent probe into the violence and what they said was a cover-up by police, as well as compensation and rehabilitation for the hundreds of thousands of people displaced due to the violence.

This is the second petition to be entertained by the SC in connection with the violence in the state. On May 18, the SC issued notice on a petition filed by the kin of two Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) workers on May 2.

The family of the two deceased, Avijit Sarkar and Haran Adhikari, demanded an independent probe into the killings by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) or a Special Investigation Team (SIT) as they alleged that the murders were carried out by members of the ruling Trinamool Congress (TMC).

In all, the plea claimed that nearly 16 BJP workers were killed during the violence.

Both petitions were heard separately by a Vacation Bench of Justices Vineet Saran and BR Gavai. The court directed both the matters to be heard together in the week commencing June 7.

The bench directed the state to file an affidavit in two weeks stating all the facts.