On June 28, following the arrest of Alt News co-founder Mohammed Zubair, Delhi Police said in a statement that his bank account had over Rs 50 lakh transactions in the last few days. Deputy Commissioner of Police of IFSO Unit KPS Malhotra was quoted by India Today saying, “We have evidence that there have been transactions over Rs 50 lakh in the last few days using his account which we will look into.”
Speaking about the tweet that became the base of his arrest, DCP Malhotra said, “We did serve him notice under Section 41A and the same has been acknowledged by the court yesterday. Even if he used a movie grab in his tweet, a previous HC judgment says that whatever you tweet or quote, the culpability lies with you.” He further added his arrest has no connection to the ongoing controversy over remarks made by former Spokesperson of BJP Nupur Sharma.
Alt News’s Pratik Sinha called it ‘absolute lies’
Quoting a screenshot of India Today’s tweet about the Delhi Police’s statement, co-founder of Alt News Pratik Sinha said it was a lie. In the tweet, he wrote, “Fact-check: Absolutely lies. Police are linking donations received by Alt News to Zubair. All the money that Alt News receives goes to the organisation’s bank and not any individuals. The bank statement of Zubair’s personal account of which I have a copy debunks this falsehood.”
On one hand, Delhi Police in the statement talked about Zubair’s account with transactions worth 50 lakh and did not mention anything about “donations” Alt News has received, Sinha assumed they were talking about the donations that the portal receives during monthly campaigns. He further added he had Zubair’s account statement but can Zubair not have two or more bank accounts?
Moreover, the last campaign they ran in May 2022 resulted in collections of around Rs 9 lakh that too should have been done via the company’s account. Their monthly target is around Rs 12 lakh. The question remains if Delhi Police talked about Zubair’s personal account or as Sinha pointed out it was the company’s account.
If it was indeed the company’s account, how come the transactions were worth Rs 50 lakh while they collected only close to Rs 9 lakh for their monthly expenses. Furthermore, if it was a personal account and Pratik has its statement, why he did not post a screenshot of it to ‘debunk’ the claims?
On June 28, a Delhi court sent Zubair to four-day Police custody.
Zubair had promoted a fundraiser for pro-Rohingya outfit in April 2022
It is noteworthy that in April this year, Zubair promoted a fundraiser for Miles2Smile, named organization that is known for its pro-Rohingya stand. Following the anti-encroachment drive in Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, New Delhi and other states, Zubair had called for a fundraiser campaign to help the alleged ‘victims’. Notably, the anti-encroachment drives were run after a series of communal clashes in these states during Shobha Yatras on Ram Navami and Hanuman Jayanti.
According to the fundraising platforms Ketto’s links shared by Mohammed Zubair, the rehabilitation work is being carried out by a dubious organization known as Miles2Smile Foundation. The organization, which is raising funds for the alleged victims, had previously raised funds for illegal Rohingya Muslim immigrants settling in the country.
According to their website, the foundation has carried out eight fundraising campaigns to help more than 1,800 victims of the Bihar Floods, the Covid-19 pandemic and also the Muslim ‘victims’ of the Anti-Hindu Delhi riots that took place in February 2020. Apart from helping to raise funds for Indian Muslim’ victims’, the foundation has also helped illegal Rohingya Muslims who have settled in camps in the country.
The organization had raised funds for the construction work for the Rohingya Refugees at Nuh in Haryana and had also built housing units, he had claimed on Twitter in January this year. It is worth noting that Nuh belongs to Mewat in Haryana, the region that is notoriously known as “Mini Pakistan “, where tales of abduction, rapes and forced conversions of Hindus have been routinely reported.
