Mohammed Zubair, the co-founder of leftist propagandist portal Alt News, has been arrested by the Delhi Police under Section 153, 295 of the Indian Penal Code.
Alt News co-founder Mohammed Zubair arrested by Delhi police under sections 153/295 IPC. pic.twitter.com/oI9OqLA56X
— ANI (@ANI) June 27, 2022
Section 295 deals with deliberate and malicious acts, intended to outrage religious feelings of any class by insulting its religion or religious beliefs while Section 153 concerns wantonly giving provocation with intent to cause riot.
“Today, during the course of investigation of a case registered u/s 153A/295A IPC against Mohammed Zubair, he joined in the investigation and after having sufficient evidence on record, he was arrested. He is being produced before the duty magistrate for seeking further PC remand,” said the police.
The arrest came weeks after Mohammed Zubair’s old social media posts mocking and insulting Hindu Gods and Goddesses had gone viral on the internet, following which he deleted his Facebook account and pulled down the controversial tweets.
Pratik Sinha, another co-founder of Alt News, shared a message on Twitter about Zubair’s arrest.
Please note. pic.twitter.com/gMmassggbx
— Pratik Sinha (@free_thinker) June 27, 2022
Sinha claimed that Zubair was being investigated by Delhi Police special cell for a 2020 case. He claimed Zubair already had protection against arrest in this case from Delhi High Court. However, at 6:45 PM he was informed of another FIR on him and he was subsequently arrested.
In a subsequent tweet, Sinha said, “After the medical examination, Zubair is being taken to an undisclosed location. Neither Zubair’s lawyers or I are being told where. We are in the police van with him. No police person is wearing any name tag.”
Mohammed Zubair’s old Hinduphobic posts surface online
On 13 June 2022, days after India witnessed violent protests that saw Islamists running riot, indulging in violence over the alleged insult of Prophet Muhammad, Twitter user The Hawk Eye (@thehawkeye) shared a collage of past tweets and posts by Mohammed Zubair mocking Hindu Gods and beliefs.
In one of the tweets shared by The Hawk Eye, Zubair is seen mocking Shivling and comparing it with the top view of the Vatican City. He said the post comparing Shivling with the Vatican City inspired him to come up with a parody Facebook page ‘Unofficial: Subramanian Swamy’ in 2014.
Apparently, one of the posts on the Facebook page ‘Unofficial Mohammed Zubair‘ mocks Arun Govil to take a swipe at Lord Ram, suggesting that ISRO must consult the actor because he would know more about the rocketry.
Another post by ‘Unofficial Mohammed Zubair’ shows an aeroplane under the water with the caption: “Breaking: Underwater Pushpak Vimana used by Raavan 5000 years found in the Indian Ocean.”
Besides ridiculing Hindu Gods, Zubair has also poked fun at Hindu beliefs and took a dig at Sanskrit, regarded as one of the most important languages of Hinduism and the means of communication by the Hindu Gods.
As his Hinduphobic posts started getting traction, with netizens sharing screenshots to highlight how Zubair has been moving and hurting the sentiments of Hindus, the AltNews co-founder quietly pulled down his Facebook page. A few days later, he deleted the controversial tweets as well.
