On 3rd December, Allahabad High Court’s bench of Justices Mahesh Chandra Tripathi and Prashant Kumar declined to hear a plea from Alt News ‘fact-checker’ and Islamist Mohammed Zubair seeking protection from arrest in a case launched by supporters of Yati Narsinghanand who is the priest of Dasna Devi Temple in Ghaziabad. The bench ordered the case to be referred to another bench. The bench recused itself within 20 minutes of the hearing.
The official looking into the case told the court during the last hearing that Zubair’s First Information Report (FIR) included the charge of damaging India’s sovereignty, unity and integrity under Section 152 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS). The FIR was registered in response to a complaint made by supporters of Yati Narsinghanand, regarding a tweet Zubair posted on X (formerly Twitter). The Yati Narsinghanand Saraswati Foundation’s general secretary, Udita Tyagi, submitted the complaint that led to the official complaint.
According to Tyagi, Zubair posted an old video clip of Narsinghanand on 3rd October with the intention of inciting violence against him. The accusation further alleged that Zubair provoked extremist views against the priest by posting manipulated video of his allegedly controversial remarks about Prophet Muhammad.
She lodged a complaint accusing Asaduddin Owaisi, Arshad Madani and Zubair of instigating violent protests at Dasna Devi Mandi. Sections 196 (inciting animosity on religious grounds), 228 (creating false evidence), 299 (inciting religious sentiments by disparaging religion or religious beliefs), 356(3) (defamation), and 351(2) (criminal intimidation) of the BNS were then invoked by the Ghaziabad Police to charge Zubair. The offense under Section 152 of the BNS was later added as well.
Afterward, Zubair filed a motion against the FIR in the High Court, requesting that he not be arrested. According to the plea, he had highlighted Yati Narsinghanand’s frequent communal slurs and disparaging remarks about women and prominent politicians on X. Zubair claimed that the FIR against him is an ill-intentioned attempt to keep him from disclosing Narsinghanand’s actions.
The High Court was notified last week that Zubair was booked under Section 152 of BNS which criminalises actions that jeopardize India’s sovereignty, unity, and integrity, and the case has been probed with the utmost earnestness and diligence. Zubair contested the use of the BNS’s defamation clause, arguing that uploading his own videos which are already in the public domain to take action against Narsinghanand cannot be considered defamation.
Narsinghanand, who had already been charged with hate speech, allegedly made a statement against Prophet Muhammad in a public speech on 29th September. Zubair referred to the speech as “derogatory and hateful” in a tweet on X. Several first information reports (FIRs) were then lodged against Narsinghanand in Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra and Telangana for fanning communal hatred and hurting religious sentiments. He was taken away by the police, according to his aides, although the Ghaziabad Police denied it. Dasna Devi Temple was then attacked by Muslims. Three were arrested and discovered to be in possession of Aadhaar cards with Hindu names.
