The Supreme Court of India on Wednesday granted bail to Alt News co-founder Mohammed Zubair in all the six cases filed against him across Uttar Pradesh.
BREAKING Justice DY Chandrachud: we direct Zubair be released on bail on each of the FIRs in UP. Existence of powers of arrest must be distinguished from the excercise of powers of arrest which must be used sparingly@AltNews #Zubairarrest #SupremeCourt
— Bar & Bench (@barandbench) July 20, 2022
“There is no justification to keep the petitioner in continued detention especially since the gravamen of allegations in UP FIRs is similar to that in Delhi police FIR,” Justice DY Chandrachud noted while granting bail relief in all the cases filed against Zubair.
With respect to the quashing of the FIRs against Zubair, Justice Chandrachud said that the Delhi police FIR has offences of cognate nature which is similar to the UP police FIRs and therefore, it would be needed to club together all FIRs and hand them over to one investigating authority.
Last week, Mohammed Zubair filed a petition with the Supreme Court requesting that six FIRs filed against him in Uttar Pradesh be dismissed. The plea filed by him challenges the FIRs recorded in Lakhimpur Kheri, Sitapur, Muzaffarnagar, Ghaziabad, and two in Hathras. The petition also challenges the formation of the SIT by the Uttar Pradesh Police.
Zubair was arrested by Delhi Police last month over a complaint filed by a social media user over his old tweets where he had insulted Hindu Gods and Goddesses. He was arrested under Section 153 which deals with wantonly giving provocation with intent to cause riots and 295A of the Indian Penal Code which entails deliberate and malicious acts, intended to outrage religious feelings of any class by insulting its religion or religious beliefs.
