HC to hear Zubair plea against remand today
AFTER BEING PRODUCED ON THE EXPIRY OF HIS ONE-DAY CUSTODIAL INTERROGATION, HIS CUSTODY WAS EXTENDED BY ANOTHER FOUR DAYS
NEW DELHI: The Delhi high court will hear on Friday a plea by Alt News co-founder Mohammed Zubair challenging his police remand in a case related to an alleged objectionable tweet he had posted in 2018.
The petition, which challenges the trial court’s June 28 order granting four days of custody of Zubair to the Delhi Police, is listed for hearing before Justice Sanjeev Narula.
Zubair’s advocate Vrinda Grover on Thursday mentioned the petition before Justice Narula who agreed to list it on Friday.
The Alt News co-founder was arrested by the Delhi Police on June 27 for allegedly hurting religious sentiments through one of his tweets and was sent to one-day police custody by the trial court on the same day.
After being produced on the expiry of his one-day custodial interrogation, his custody was extended by another four days by chief metropolitan magistrate Snigdha Sarvaria.
Earlier this month, a case against Zubair was registered under sections 153A (promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion, race, place of birth, language, etc.) and 295A (deliberate and malicious act intended to outrage religious feelings) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).
Police said the case was registered on the complaint of a
Twitter user who accused him of hurting religious sentiments.
Police, while seeking an extension of Zubair’s custody by five days, had told the trial court that the accused was allegedly following a trend where he used religious tweets in an effort to get famous and that there was a deliberate effort to create social disharmony and hurt religious feelings. Grover had opposed the police plea.
“Someone recently tweeted Zubair’s tweet of 2018, and the present case was filed. The anonymous Twitter handle had its very first tweet, which cited Zubair’s tweet, which has been picked up by police. The agency is playing mischief,” the counsel had submitted.