There seems to no end of trouble for Alt News co-founder Mohammad Zubair, as today a court in Hathras in Uttar Pradesh remanded him to judicial custody for 14 days. Zubair was produced at the court in Hathras, and after the hearing the court sent him to judicial custody till July 27.
As many as seven cases have been registered against Zubair in Uttar Pradesh, out of which two are in Hathras. One of the cased is related to his social media posts defaming Hindu Gods and Hinduism. He has been charged under section 153A (promoting enmity between different groups on ground of religion, race, etc.), 295A (deliberate and malicious acts, intended to outrage religious feelings of any class), 298 (Uttering, words, etc., with deliberate intent to wound the religious feelings of any person) of Indian Penal Code and section 67 (publishing or transmitting obscene material in electronic form) of Information Technology Act.
The FIR filed on July 4 at the Kotwali police station had said that Zubair used to make a “mockery of Hindu deities” on social media. Hathras authorities had produced a warrant at the Sitapur jail, where he is currently lodged, to produce him in Hathras for the hearling.
Last month Zubair had deleted his Facebook page and removed several tweets after netizens had pointed out Hinduphobic messages he was posting on social media. His anti-Hindu posts on Twitter and Facebook had come under scrutiny after he had triggered the nationwide protests and violence against Nupur Sharma for her comments on Prophet Mohammad.
The second FIR againat Zubair in Hathras was registered over riots in Purdil Nagar on June 10 after Friday prayers. Zubair is accused of inciting the riots against Nupur Sharma. He has been charged under IPC sections 153 A (promoting enmity), 353 (criminal force to deter public servant from discharge of his duty), 188 (disobedience to order duly promulgated by public servant), and 120 B (criminal conspiracy) in this FIR.
Zubair was arrested by Delhi police after an FIR was registered against him accusing him of hurting religious sentiments by a 2018 tweet. Subsequently, more FIRs were filed against him in Uttar Pradesh, and police started taking action on FIRs that were already filed against him earlier.
Apart from the 2 FIRs in Hathras, FIRs have been filed against him in Ghaziabad, Muzzafarnagar, Sitapur, Lakhimpur Kheri and Chandauli. All of these FIRs were registered almost a year ago in 2021. While he has been granted interim bail by the Supreme Court in the Sitapur case, he has not been granted relief in the Delhi case.
It is notable that given the volume of allegations against Md Zubair, the Uttar Pradesh Police have formed an SIT to probe the cases against him.
