Rajasthan HC stays Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey's arrest

The Rajasthan High Court on Wednesday stayed the arrest of Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey but refused to quash the FIR against him, lodged by a representative of a Brahmin organisation for allegedly defamaing the Brahmin community.

Hearing a petition by Dorsey to quash the FIR, Justice P.S. Bhati rejected the plea but provided a breather by staying his arrest during the course of the investigation.

"Dorsey`s counsels moved a Criminal Miscellaneous petition in the high court praying for the quashing of the FIR and stay the investigation against Dorsey. But the court rejected it, however, the court stayed the arrest," said H.M. Saraswat, the counsel of petitioner Rajkumar Sharma of the Vipra Foundation. 

Dorsey`s counsel told the court there was no case made out against Dorsey as he did nothing to disseminate hatred against the Brahmin community and accord an institutional proportion to the hatred.

"The court asked them to submit any document or evidence in support of their arguments in the court," said Saraswat.

The court had on December 1 directed an FIR be filed against Dorsey, after which this was registered against him at the Basni police station. 

Petitioner Rajkumar Sharma had moved the court after Dorsey had shared a picture on his Twitter account posing with six female journalists during his India visit with a poster in his hand reading "Smash Brahminical Patriarchy". 

Though the image was later been removed an apology tendered, Sharma said that Dorsey`s act was unforgivable and deserved punishment for targeting Brahmins in an abominably humiliating way.