NEW DELHI: No end of trouble for Alt News co-founder Mohammad Zubair, a fact-checker on misreporting by newspapers and TV news channels. On Thursday, a court at Hathras in Uttar Pradesh remanded him to judicial custody for 14 days till July 27.
As many as seven cases have been registered against him in Uttar Pradesh, two of which are in Hathras. One of the cases relates to his social media posts, defaming the Hindu Gods and Hinduism.
He has been charged under section 153A (promoting enmity between different groups on ground of religion, race, etc.), 295A (deliberate and malicious acts, intended to outrage religious feelings of any class), 298 (Uttering, words, etc., with deliberate intent to wound the religious feelings of any person) of Indian Penal Code and section 67 (publishing or transmitting obscene material in electronic form) of Information Technology Act.
The FIR filed on July 4 at the Kotwali police station at Hathras had said that Zubair used to make a “mockery of Hindu deities” on social media. Hathras authorities had produced a warrant at the Sitapur jail, where he is currently lodged, to produce him in Hathras for the hearling.
The second FIR againat Zubair in Hathras was registered over riots in Purdil Nagar on June 10 after Friday prayers. Zubair is accused of inciting the riots against Nupur Sharma.
Zubair was arrested by Delhi police after an FIR was registered against him accusing him of hurting religious sentiments by a 2018 tweet. Subsequently, more FIRs were filed against him in Uttar Pradesh, and police started taking action on FIRs that were already filed against him earlier.
Apart from two FIRs in Hathras, FIRs have been filed against him in Ghaziabad, Muzzafarnagar, Sitapur, Lakhimpur Kheri and Chandauli. All of these FIRs were registered almost a year ago in 2021. While he has been granted interim bail by the Supreme Court in the Sitapur case, he has not been granted relief in the Delhi case. Given the volume of allegations against him, the Uttar Pradesh Police has formed an SIT (special investigation team) to probe the cases against him.
Last month, Zubair allegedly deleted his Facebook page and removed several tweets after netizens had pointed out Hinduphobic messages he was posting on social media. His anti-Hindu posts on Twitter and Facebook had come under scrutiny after he had triggered the nationwide protests and violence against Nupur Sharma for her comments on Prophet Mohammad.
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