The Karnataka High Court on Wednesday warned Facebook that it could take measures to shut down its operations in India if it did not comply with law enforcement authorities in the case of an Indian man currently jailed in Saudi Arabia, the Hindustan Times reported.
The man, Shailesh Kumar, was arrested on accusations of having posted objectionable content about Saudi Arabia’s King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud and Islam on Facebook. However, his wife Kavitha claimed before the High Court that his Facebook account had been hacked, according to Live Law.
The account has now reportedly been deleted.
Kavitha said that she filed a complaint with the Mangaluru Police in connection with the matter. She added that the police had sought information from Facebook’s parent company Meta about the alleged hacking, but the company did not respond.
On June 12, the High Court directed Mangaluru Commissioner of Police Kuldeep Kumar Jain to study the case and be present before the court on June 14.
The court had asked him to explain “why there has been an inordinate delay in concluding the investigation, especially when a citizen of this country is languishing in a jail in a foreign country after trial and conviction, with his specific claim being that his Facebook account was hacked”.
On June 14, the police chief appeared before the court and said that the investigation was delayed as Facebook was not co-operating with law enforcement authorities. However, the counsel for Meta said that it would try to retrieve the information that the police need if they provide certain details about the account.
The case is slated to be heard next on June 22.
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