The News Minute (TNM) recently published an interview of Alt News co-founder Mohammed Zubair, who was recently granted bail in over half a dozen cases filed against him in Uttar Pradesh over sundry charges, ranging from defaming Hindu seers to spreading fake news and others.
However, curiously, the article was updated soon after it was published as readers highlighted how the Alt News co-founder lived in relative comfort as against the grim victimhood narrative weaved by leftist ideologues who insinuated that Zubair was being mistreated and subjected to harsh conditions during his stay in jail.
The report published in The News Minute, an organisation known for its leftist bent and whose senior leadership make no bones about their support for Alt News and Mohammed Zubair despite numerous instances of them peddling fake news, said Zubair was kept well in jail during his stay in Delhi Police custody. The article said he was kept in an Air Conditioned room by the Delhi Police.
But hours later, the article replaced the reference to an air-conditioned room with just a “room”. The below-attached image is a snippet from the updated report where the “AC room” is changed to just “room”.
The removal of reference to an air-conditioned room could mean only two things—either The News Minute edited the article because it reported fake news about Delhi Police keeping Mohammed Zubair in an AC room—or it harmed the victimhood narrative that it seeks to create for the Alt News co-founder after his 24 days in police custody.
Given that The News Minute article is published in an interview format and entails answers provided by Zubair, it is highly unlikely that it contained wrong information about the type of room in which the Delhi Police kept the Alt News co-founder.
Therefore, considering that the answers published in the report are presumably verbatim what Zubair told them, it is likely that the article was edited to remove the reference to his stay in AC room during the Delhi Police custody to reinforce the victimhood narrative that the left-leaning media organisations meticulously built following the arrest of Alt News co-founder last month for hurting religious sentiments after his past Hinduphobic tweets and FB posts had gone viral on the internet.
Mohammed Zubair arrested for hurting religious sentiments
Mohammed Zubair was arrested on June 28 by the Delhi Police for hurting religious sentiments via derogatory social media posts targeting Hinduism. He was booked under Sections 153A and 295 of the Indian Penal Code. The FIR was based on a tweet by Twitter user @balajikijaiin where the user had shared a screenshot of an old tweet by Zubair in which he had mocked Lord Hanuman. In the tweet, @balajikijaiin had tagged the Delhi Police and asked them to take action against Zubair for hurting the sentiments of Hindus with his derogatory post against Lord Hanuman.
Earlier in June, past Hinduphobic posts mocking Hindu Gods and Goddesses by Zubair had surfaced on social media, raising questions on his “newfound” love to expose hate-speech. Apparently, days before his Hinduphobic tweets and social media posts had gone viral on the internet, Zubair had dog whistled against former BJP spokesperson Nupur Sharma for defending her faith during a Times Now debate, resulting in Islamists baying for her blood and culminating in at least three deaths over ’blasphemy’.
