The Supreme Court has granted interim bail to Alt News co-founder and propagandist Mohammed Zubair in a case filed in the Sitapur District of Uttar Pradesh. Zubair petitioned the Supreme Court challenging a lawsuit filed in Uttar Pradesh’s Sitapur district over a tweet in which he referred to Hindu seers as “hate mongers.”
BREAKING: #MohammedZubair granted interim bail by #SupremeCourt
— LawBeat (@LawBeatInd) July 8, 2022
However, Zubair will remain in police custody as the bail has only been granted in the FIR dated 1 June 2022. The court has granted him relief for 5 days and has ordered that he will not be leaving the jurisdiction of the “Delhi Magistrate” and will not post anything on Twitter. The court has also ordered that Zubair shall not tamper with electronic evidence in Bangalore or anywhere else.
Order: It is made clear that this order pertains to FIR dated June 1, 2022 and not any other FIR against #MohammedZubair
— LawBeat (@LawBeatInd) July 8, 2022
Arguing for Zubair, his counsel Colin Gonsalves argued in the court that Zubair is the one who captures hate speech and he has been put in jail. To which, the Solicitor General, appearing from the side of the state, stated that his tweets led to a law and order situation and that it is an irony that he runs a fact-checker website.
SG mentioned that he has suppressed information to his advantage. He stated that an earlier application for bail was rejected by the Sitapur court and that was not before the bench during the hearing. The order of a Delhi court rejecting his bail and granting remand was also not presented before this court.
SG: My instructions are Delhi Court has rejected bail and granted remand. For this offence, bail is rejected and remand is granted. These have all been suppressed before this court. Please see the prayer milord. #MohammedZubair
— LawBeat (@LawBeatInd) July 8, 2022
SG also mentioned that there is a money angle associated with him and that his involvement is being probed. SG explicitly pointed out before the court that a single tweet is not in question and that “his overall conduct is being investigated.” The case was heard by a bench of justices Indira Banerjee and JK Maheshwari.
SG: ONE ISOLATED TWEET IS NOT THE OFFENCE, HIS OVERALL CONDUCT IS BEING INVESTIGATED.#MohammedZubair
— LawBeat (@LawBeatInd) July 8, 2022
On June 1, Khairabad Police of Sitapur district in Uttar Pradesh filed a First Investigation Report (FIR) against Alt News co-founder Mohammed Zubair for using derogatory language against Mahant Bajrang Muni Udasin, Rashtriya Sanrakshak of Rashtriya Hindu Sher Sena along with Yati Narsinghanand and Swami Anand Swaroop. The FIR was registered based on the complaint of Bhagwan Sharan, district head of Rashtriya Hindu Sher Sena, under sections 295(A) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and Section 67 of the Information Technology Act, 2000.
The Sitapur court in Uttar Pradesh rejected the bail plea of Alt News co-founder and propagandist Mohammed Zubair on Thursday 7th July 2022. Judge Abhinav Srivastava denied the bail on the grounds that the accused may influence witnesses or commit similar new crimes. It was observed that the case was serious in nature and non-bailable, therefore he could not be released on bail.
