Delhi Police request Adhir Chowdhury to submit ‘hacked’ devices for probe

At around 11:27am on Saturday, a tweet containing ‘controversial quotes’ was put out through Chowdhury's Twitter account. The post was later taken down, and the Congress leader claimed his handle had been 'hacked.'

The Delhi Police on Saturday requested Congress leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury to submit his devices which he claimed were ‘hacked,’ after a tweet was put out from his handle earlier in the day, remembering Rajiv Gandhi on his death anniversary through the former prime minister's infamous ‘when a big tree falls’ quote.

Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury (File photo/ANI)

“Thank you @adhirinc for bringing the issue to our notice. It’s requested that you submit us the devices which you claim to hv been hacked for conducting the investigation on the basis of the complaint made by you. Looking fwd to your co-operation. Legal action is being taken,” said the Delhi Police on its Twitter account.

 

The force attached with its post, a screenshot of the complaint filed by Chowdhury at the South Avenue Police Station, New Delhi, in which he claimed his Twitter handle was ‘hacked’ by some ‘wrong doers.’

At around 11:27am, a tweet appeared on the Congress MP’s timeline quoting Rajiv Gandhi: “When a big tree falls, the ground shakes.”

 

On November 19, 1984, Gandhi, then India’s PM, made a speech which contained the aforementioned quote. The speech was made on the 67th birth anniversary of his mother, Indira Gandhi, who, as prime minister, was assassinated on October 31, 1984, by her Sikh bodyguards, in retaliation for the military action ordered by her on Amritsar’s Golden Temple in June that year.

Indira Gandhi’s killing sparked anti-Sikh riots; opposition parties have frequently labelled Rajiv Gandhi’s address as his ‘justification’ for his mother’s assassination.

Meanwhile, the tweet containing the controversial quote was taken down from Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury’s timeline, and replaced by a new post with one of Rajiv Gandhi’s quotes on development.

 

As a major controversy erupted, Chowdhury tweeted, “The tweet against my name in the tweeter account has nothing to do with my own observation.”

 

“A malicious campaign is propagated by those forces inimical to me,” he added.