Delhi Police arrests Alt News co-founder Zubair

New Delhi: A special cell of the Delhi Police on Wednesday arrested journalist Mohammed Zubair, the cofounder of the fact-checking site Alt News, for allegedly hurting religious sentiments.

Zubair was charged under Sections 153 (giving provocation with intent to cause riot) and 295 (deliberate and malicious acts, intended to outrage religious feelings) of the Indian Penal Code.

According to NDTV, the case is based on a complaint made by Twitter handle ‘@ balajikijaiin’ - a page with one tweet and zero followers - earlier this month. Police officials said Zubair’s conduct during the investigation was found “questionable”, warranting his custodial interrogation to “unravel conspiracy in this matter”

Alt News co-founder Pratik Sinha said that Zubair had been summoned by the Delhi Police for an investigation into a 2020 case for which he already had protection against arrest from the High Court.

“However, today at around 6.45 pm we were told he has been arrested in some other FIR for which no notice was given which is mandatory under law for the Sections under which he has been arrested,” Sinha said. “No FIR copy is being given to us despite repeated requests.”

In another tweet, Sinha alleged that Zubair was being taken to an undisclosed location. Zubair’s arrest comes five days after the microblogging site Twitter received a request from the Union government claiming that his account violated Indian laws.

Several cases have been filed against the journalist in the past. Zubair had highlighted the hate speeches at Dharam Sansad and the derogatory comments made by BJP spokesperson Nupur Sharma about Prophet Muhammad, which drew condemnation from a host of countries, including Qatar, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia. The Centre was forced to distance itself from Sharma’s comments.