Mohammed Zubair, Zubair arrested, Mohammed Zubair arrested, zubair altnews arrestedMohammed Zubair is co-founder of AltNews, a fact-checking website. On Monday, the IFSO unit of Delhi Police arrested AltNews founder Mohammed Zubair. This was days after a man posted a Facebook tag accusing Delhi Police of causing him to feel hurt by Zubair. Police claimed they had filed an FIR under IPC sections 295-A and 153-A, in relation to the complaint of the man.
Why Is Mohammed Zubair Arrested?
DCP (IFSO), K P S Malhotra stated, “Delhi Police have registered a case following a complaint from a twitter handle wherein it was alleged Mohammed Zubair had tweeted a questionable picture with a purpose of deliberately insulting the gods of a specific religion.” These tweets were retweeted, and it became apparent that there are a number of social media entities who engage in insult mongering. This could have a negative impact on communal harmony and overall the maintenance of public peace.
🔴 #BREAKING | Journalist Mohammed Zubair Arrested For Allegedly Hurting Religious Sentiments https://t.co/OV4v85xb62 pic.twitter.com/eviiJkWRaP
— NDTV (@ndtv) June 27, 2022
Who is Mohammed Zubair?
Prateek Sinha, Alt-News founder, posted a tweet shortly after his arrest saying that “Zubair was today called by Special Cell, Delhi for investigation in a 2020 matter for which he had protection against arrest at the High Court.” Today, at 6.45pm, we were informed that he had been arrested in an additional FIR. We did not receive notice which is required under law for Sections under which he was arrested. We have repeatedly requested FIR copies, but they are not being provided.”
Sinha was referring back to September 2020 when police booked Zubair under Section 501 of the POCSO Act. Zubair had responded to an abusive tweet from a Twitter user. In this case, the Delhi High Court had stopped police from coercive actions against Zubair.
Zubair had highlighted comments made earlier this month by Nupur Sharma, suspended BJP spokesperson, on the Prophet. The central government was then embroiled in a diplomatic row. There was condemnation from a number of countries including Qatar, Kuwait, and Saudi Arabia. The Centre was forced by Sharma to distance itself from her comments, even though she had been suspended by the party.
Jairam Ramesh, Congress leader, tweeted that Jairam Ramesh was behind the expose of Vishguru’s bogus claims. He has responded with the kind of vengeance that is characteristic of him. The Union Home Minister reports to Delhi Police. They have long lost all pretenses of professionalism or independence.