From Our Bureau
NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Wednesday ordered release of Alt News cofounder Mohammed Zubair on interim bail in all UP Police FIRs and directed the jail authorities to release him before 6 PM, subject to furnishing the bail bonds.
A bench led by Justice DY Chandrachud, which also comprised Justices Surya Kant and A S Bopanna, observed that existence of power of arrest must be pursued sparingly by the Police.
The bench was of the view that there is “no justification” to keep Zubair in continued custody any further depriving him of personal liberty and subject him to diverse proceedings when the gravamen of allegations arises from the Tweets, which also form part of investigation by Delhi Police in a case in which he has been already granted bail.
It also ordered disbanding of the Special Investigation Team (SIT) formed by the UP Police to probe the FIRs against Zubain and clubbed all the FIRs, holding that the case should be handled by one investigating authority, i.e. Special Cell of Delhi Police.
Accepting the alternate prayer of Zubair to club all FIRs in Delhi with interim bail, the Court said the direction to transfer all UP FIRs to Delhi Police shall also apply to the future FIRs registered on the basis of his tweets and he will be entitled to bail in all such future FIRs.
The top court also gave liberty to Zubair to seek quashing of the FIRs before Delhi High Court.
His lawyer Vrinda Grover pointed out that all FIRs are on the same tweets, none of which remotely uses language which is improper or amount to a criminal offence. She said this is a clear case of “silencing” a fact-checker by invoking criminal action under multiple FIRs.
“In this age of digital age, the job of someone who is debunking false information may draw the ire of others. But the law cannot be weaponised against him….The dormant FIRs are activated the moment I secure bail in any case. Old dormant FIRs get suddenly acctivated. There is a scenario of encircling me,” she said.
Uttar Pradesh Additional Advocate General Garima Prashad insisted that Zubair is not a journalist. “He calls himself a fact-checker. Under the guise of fact checking, he is promoting malicious and provocative content. And he gets paid for the tweets. More malicious the tweets, more payment he gets. He has admitted that he has got over Rs 20 crore,” she said.
She submitted that instead of informing the police of illegal speech or hatred, Zubair has been taking advantage of speeches and videos which have the potential of creating communal divide and he has been sharing them repeatedly.
BAIL CONDITION: Zubair has to file a personal bond of Rs 20,000 in connection with the seven UP FIRs. Also he has to be presented before the Chief Metropolitan Magistrate, Patiala House in New Delhi and immediately after submission of the bond, the Superintendent of Tihar Jails is directed to ensure he is released before 6 PM on Wednesday itself.
The top court noted that Zubair was “embroiled” in a series of proceedings where he is either in judicial custody or the police remand application is pending.
Apart from the Delhi Police FIR, a series of FIRs have been registered against Zubair at Loni Border, Muzaffarnagar, Chandoli, Lakhimpur, Sitapur and Hathras. All the FIRs broadly allege offences under same sections 153A, 295A, 505 IPC and 67 IT Act.
Zubair relied on the Bhajan Lal cae to argue that where criminal proceedings are mala fide or maliciously instituted to wreck vengeance, they can be quashed.
In the FIR registered at the instance of Sudarshan TV, he was accused of inciting the global Muslims through his tweet in which he accused the TV channel of superimposing the image of a mosque in Medina on the image of the Gaza strip to falsely show that it was being destroyed.
Grover argued that he is pointing out as a fact checker that the picture of the mosque used in a graphic of Sudarshan TV is wrong mosque. Hoping the police will take action against the TV channel, she said prima facie, no offence is made out while the FIRs are lodged by the correspondents of this very channel.
Moreover, she said the offences alleged are not punishable for more than three years and so the 14-day police remand was disproportionate. She said the remand was sought to take me into custody and take me wherever they want to probe the tweets from 2014. Is this not a statutory abuse of the power of investigation.
“There are direct threats to him. There is a bounty announce for his head. He is lodged in Tihar jail nd he is taken back and forth,” Grover submitted.
