Famous journalist and co-founder of fact-checking website AltNews, Mohammed Zubair was on Monday arrested by the Delhi Police for allegedly hurting religious sentiments and promoting enmity. Delhi Police has accused him of hurting religious sentiments and promoting enmity, under Sections 153 and 295A of Indian Penal Code.
DCP (IFSO) K P S Malhotra said, “Today, during the course of investigation of a case registered at Special Cell police station, Mohammed Zubair joined the probe… After having sufficient evidence on record, he was arrested in the present case. He is being produced before a magistrate for seeking further police remand for the purpose of investigation.”
A senior police officer said, “The Delhi Police official handle was tagged in a tweet in which the user alleged that Zubair was hurting religious sentiments and promoting enmity. The tweet was posted this month. He (Zubair) had posted something about religious places. We have taken action on the tweet and registered a case. Zubair has been arrested and is being questioned about the said tweet.”
Earlier this month, an FIR was registered against Mohammad Zubair at Uttar Pradesh’s Khairabad Police Station for calling three Hindu seers — Yati Narasinghanand Saraswati, Bajrang Muni and Anand Swaroop — “hate mongers”.
On May 27, Zubair tweeted that prime time debates on Indian news channels had become “a platform to encourage hate mongers to speak ill about other religions”.
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Several cases have been filed against the journalist in the past.
On June 1, the Uttar Pradesh Police booked Zubair under Indian Penal Code Section 295A (deliberate and malicious acts, intended to outrage religious feelings) as well as Section 67 (publishing or transmitting obscene material in electronic form) of the Information Technology Act.
This was after the journalist called three Hindutva supremacists “hatemongers” in a tweet. All three seers – Yati Narasinghanand Saraswati, Bajrang Muni and Anand Swaroop – have been booked in hate speech cases in the past few months for making inflammatory statements about Muslims.
Zubair said that this was the fifth or sixth case that had been filed against him.
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