The Allahabad High Court today reserved its judgement on a plea moved by Alt News cofounder Mohammed Zubair to quash an FIR against him. While reserving its verdict, the bench of Justices Siddhartha Varma and Yogendra Kumar Srivastava also extended Zubair’s interim protection from arrest.
However, LiveLaw reported that the state of Uttar Pradesh, represented by additional advocate general Manish Goyal, opposed that Zubair be protected from arrest until the chargesheet in the matter was filed.
The case pertains to a tweet posted by Zubair in October last year. Zubair had tweeted about Hindutva leader Yati Narsinghanand’s incendiary remarks about Islam and the Prophet.
The general secretary of the Yati Narsinghanand Saraswati Foundation then filed a police complaint against Zubair alleging he had shared an “old” clip of the priest to incite violence.
The Uttar Pradesh police swiftly booked Zubair in an FIR under charges related to promoting enmity, outraging religious feelings, defamation and criminal intimidation. Charges for “endangering the sovereignty, unity, and integrity of India” were added later.
Zubair then moved the high court to quash the FIR. In December, the Allahabad High Court stayed his arrest. At the time, the court said he was “not a dreaded criminal, and his immediate arrest is not necessary”.
This isn’t the first FIR against Zubair. Here’s a look at some cases that illustrate the Alt News cofounder’s role in flagging hate speech online.
The Dasna priest, Yati Narsinghanand, on the other hand, has repeatedly courted controversy for his hate speeches despite multiple FIRs against him. To know more about his ecosystem of hate, read this.
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