NEW DELHI: The sessions court of Patiala House Court in Delhi granted bail to Alt News co-founder Mohammad Zubair in the alleged 'objectionable' tweet case on Friday.
The court said the accused Zubair can't leave the country without its prior permission and granted him bail on a personal bail bond of Rs 50,000 and and one surety of the like amount.
A magisterial court had on July 2 dismissed his bail plea and sent him to 14-day judicial custody in the case, citing the nature and gravity of the offences against the accused and observing that the matter was at an initial stage of investigation.
Delhi Police had on June 27 arrested Zubair on charges of promoting enmity on religious grounds and deliberately hurting religious feelings, a non-bailable offence, through a tweet.
Later, he was remanded in several other FIRs registered by the UP police.
Zubair on Thursday moved the Supreme Court seeking the quashing of all six FIRs registered against him in UP. The development came on the same day that a local Hathras court remanded him to 14-day judicial custody, fixing the next date of hearing on July 27.
The fact checker’s SC plea challenged FIRs registered in Sitapur, Lakhimpur Kheri, Ghaziabad, Muzaffarnagar, and Hathras. It also challenged the formation of a special investigation team (SIT) by the UP government to probe cases pertaining to “provocative tweets” posted by him.
Earlier in the day, the Hathras court of the chief judicial magistrate gave its remand orders in connection with a case against Zubair for allegedly “insulting” Hindu deities on social media. The complaint was filed by the president of Rashtriya Swabhiman Seva Dal Deepak Sharma last month.
Zubair, who was produced physically before the court amid tight security, 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.
His name was added in another FIR that was lodged at the Sikandrarao police station in Hathras last month.
(With inputs from agencies)
