Alt News co-founder Mohammed Zubair was arrested Monday in connection with an allegedly objectionable tweet posted in 2018.
The Delhi High Court on Thursday agreed to hear a plea by journalist and Alt News fact-checking website co-founder Mohammed Zubair challenging his arrest and custodial interrogation. The court will hear the plea tomorrow.
Zubair was arrested Monday – weeks after he flagged ex-BJP spokesperson Nupur Sharma’s comments in the Prophet row – and in connection with an allegedly objectionable tweet he posted in 2018. He was sent to the custody of Delhi Police for one-day.
Custody was extended Tuesday by four days after chief metropolitan magistrate Snigdha Sarvaria agreed with the prosecution’s claim – that Zubair had been non-cooperative during interrogation and had to be taken to Bengaluru.
Later on Thursday Zubair was brought to Bengaluru by an Intelligence Fusion and Strategic Operations (IFSO) unit of the Delhi Police Special Cell.
Earlier a senior Delhi Police officer confirmed Zubair had refused to hand over devices he may have used when he allegedly made the ‘highly provocative’ post. His lawyer, Kawalpreet Kaur, said police knew Zubair lost his phone. “The mobile phone he has is a new one and police are aware of the matter,” she said.
Police have further said they are looking into donations to the website as some of these had been made from ‘across the border’. Alt News co-founder Pratik Sinha responded that it was ‘absolutely lies’ and that police were ‘linking donations received by Alt News to Zubair’.
The FIR against the journalist – a copy of which has been seen by Hindustan Times – was registered on the basis of a sub-inspector’s complaint; the document is not online because of its sensitive nature, officials have said. The complainant said he was monitoring social media when he came across a post seeking action against Zubair for a tweet that said: ‘BEFORE 2014: Honeymoon Hotel. After 2014: Hanuman Hotel’ and had an image of the hotel’s signboard.
Pratik Sinha has alleged Zubair was arrested without notice – which is mandatory under law for the sections under which he has been held. He also said that no police person taking Zubair away had any name tag.
On Tuesday he tweeted – in response to a tweet by a TV news channel showing screenshots of the remand copy – “… Zubair’s lawyers haven’t been provided the copy despite multiple requests to the concerned police personnel.”
Mohammed Zubair’s arrest has sparked waves of condemnation online, with journalists, activists and opposition leaders speaking out in support. Congress MP Rahul Gandhi, AIMIM chief and MP Asaduddin Owaisi, Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee and her Trinamool MP Derek O’Brien, as well as a Rashtriya Janata Dal MP, have spoken out in support.
