The tweets at the heart of a hate speech investigation against journalist Rana Ayyub have quietly disappeared from X (formerly Twitter), the Delhi Police told a court this week. But the case against her continues to churn.
Delhi Police filed an action taken report before the Saket court, stating the controversial tweets—concerning Hindu deities and Hindutva figure Vinayak Damodar Savarkar—are no longer visible on the platform. These posts had sparked allegations of hurting Hindu sentiments and provoked an FIR back in January, following court orders.
In the report submitted to Chief Judicial Magistrate Himanshu Raman Singh, authorities detailed multiple attempts to extract data from X. Four notices under Section 91 of the Criminal Procedure Code were uploaded on the platform’s legal portal—first on January 28, then again on March 3, April 10, and April 22—seeking account details and tweet metadata. Despite these efforts, no response has been received so far.
“On checking the X platform, the alleged tweets are not available,” the police noted, adding that the probe will move forward once the company responds.
The court had earlier directed the police to act on a complaint filed by Amita Sachdeva, converting it into a formal FIR against Ayyub under Indian Penal Code Sections 153A (promoting enmity), 295A (outraging religious feelings), and 505 (public mischief).
After reviewing the status report on May 28, the court scheduled the next hearing for July 30, asking police to submit a fresh update.
The tweets may be gone, but the investigation—and the questions around it—are far from over.