New Delhi. A Delhi court on Tuesday granted four-day custody to Alt News co-founder Mohammad Zubair in connection with one of his tweets on micro-blogging platform Twitter in 2018 in which he allegedly accused a community of religious leaders. hurt feelings. Zubair, 33, was produced by Delhi Police before Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Snigdha Sarwaria at Patiala House Court. The police had registered a case against him after receiving a complaint from a Twitter handle, where it was alleged that he had intentionally tweeted a suspicious picture with the aim of hurting religious sentiments. IPC section 153A (promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion, caste, place of birth, residence) and 295A (deliberate and malicious acts, by insulting any class of religion or religious) on Zubair. He was accused of hurting sentiments.
Before the court, the Delhi Police argued for the five-day custody of the accused fact-checker. The transmission and publication of such post has been done intentionally through electronic media with the intention of outraging the peace with the intention of insulting the religious sentiments of a particular community, the FIR said. After the arrest, the police said that he was not cooperating in the investigation. According to officials, we had given him a notice under section 41A of CrPC, but he was evasive and not cooperating in the investigation.
Police said Zubair was evasive on questions and neither provided technical equipment required for the purpose of investigation nor cooperated in the investigation. According to the FIR, accused Zubair had used a screengrab of an old Hindi film, in which a picture of a hotel was visible, on the board of which ‘Hanuman Hotel’ was written instead of ‘Honeymoon Hotel’. Zubair wrote in his tweet, Before 2014: Honeymoon Hotel. 2014 onwards: Hanuman Hotel.
Tagging the Delhi Police, the complainant wrote, “Associating our Lord Hanuman ji with honeymoon is a direct insult to Hindus because he is celibate. Please take action against this. During the hearing, senior advocate Vrinda Grover appeared for Zubair and said that the controversial image comes from Hindi cinema and has been shared by many others. Grover also sought permission to play the scene in the courtroom.
She said in the petition, can I play this scene so that there is no question in the mind of the court? I am not only opposing the remand but after that I will also seek bail. Grover made a lengthy argument that it is a professional duty of a journalist to tell the truth to power and he is being targeted, alleging that the police is “misusing power”.