On July 15, 2022, a Delhi Court granted bail to Alt News co-founder and fact Checker Muhammad Zubair in a case related to 2018 tweet that allegedly hurt religious sentiments and promoted enmity. However, he still remains in judicial custody for two other cases filed in Uttar Pradesh.
Additional sessions judge Devender Kumar Jangala, who had reserved the order on Thursday, July 14, granted bail to Zubair, reportedly observing that the Hindu religion and its followers were “tolerant”. The court also emphasised the importance of free speech and dissent in a democracy. The court underlined that neither Zubair’s four-year-old tweet, nor the image from a 39-year-old film he had attached to it, had generated any complaints before, and said his actions did not merit the charges unless done with “malice” or “guilty intention”, reported The Telegraph.
When the prosecution contended that the 2018 tweet by Zubair was an attack on the ruling political party, the court reportedly stated that Indian political parties were open to criticism, and it did not justify the invocation of penal sections such as IPC section 153A (promoting enmity between different groups) and section 295A (outraging religious feelings).
With respect to the prosecution’s argument of Foreign Contribution Regulation Act (FCRA) violations, the court held that Zubair had placed on record that only Indian citizens with Indian bank accounts can contribute to Alt News and that this was specifically mentioned on the website. Moreover, the court noted that the accused had taken all the safeguards to prevent the receipt of any foreign contributions, reported The Telegraph.
However, the Court has restricted Zubair from leaving the country without prior permission of the court and granted bail on a personal bail bond of Rs. 50,000.
Earlier this week, Zubair moved the Supreme Court seeking interim bail in all six cases and challenged the constitution of the Special Investigation Team (SIT) by the UP government to probe the cases. He has also sought clubbing of six FIRs with the FIR lodged in Delhi. On the same day, the Hathras Court remanded him to 14-day judicial custody, setting the next date of hearing on July 27.
Zubair has been charged under IPC sections 153A (promoting enmity), 295A (acts to outrage religious feelings), and 298 (uttering words to wound religious feelings), along with section 67 (publishing or transmitting obscene material) of the Information Technology Act.
As per reports, Zubair was first arrested by the Delhi police on June 27 over a tweet posted by him in 2018 and was later remanded in the other FIRs registered by the UP Police.
On July 8, Justices Indira Banerjee and JK Maheshwari granted him interim bail in the Sitapur case under the condition that he will not will not post any further tweets. They made it clear that the court had not stayed the investigation in the FIR and that interim relief does not apply to any other pending case.
On July 12, 2022, the Supreme Court extended the five days interim bail granted to him in the case where he had called three religious leaders “hate mongers” (Sitapur case). A bench led by Justice DY Chandrachud granted the state government four weeks to file its counter. The authorities charged the fact-checking website head for deliberate and malicious acts, intent to outrage religious feelings and promote enmity between different religious groups.
Separate FIRs have been lodged against Zubair in Sitapur, Lakhimpur Kheri, Ghaziabad, Muzaffarnagar, and Hathras districts on charges of allegedly hurting religious feelings, making sarcastic remarks on news anchors, disrespecting Hindu gods, and inflammatory posts, reported Zee News.
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