Police seek five-day custody of Zubair
The Delhi Police on Tuesday sought the extension of Alt News co-founder Mohammed Zubair’s custody by five more days. The journalist was produced before chief metropolitan magistrate Snigdha Sarvaria on the expiry of his one-day custodial interrogation.
Zubair was arrested late on Monday in a case related to an “objectionable tweet” he had posted in 2018 against a Hindu deity.“Mohd Zubair’s objectionable tweet led to a Twitter storm with hate speeches, detrimental to communal harmony. Two things including technical gadget and intention was important. He was evasive on both, the phone was formatted. This formed grounds for his arrest,” said KPS Malhotra, DCP IFSO.
Police had earlier said Zubair was ‘evasive’ when asked questions and did not provide the ‘necessary technical equipment’ or co-operate with the authorities. Police said other FIRs were also registered against him in different matters.
Zubair had reportedly refused to hand over personal electronic devices used by him in 2018 - which he may have used to make the social media post. Zubair’s arrest came weeks after he had flagged ex-BJP spokesperson Nupur Sharma’s comments in the Prophet row.
Zubair’s colleague and Alt News co-founder Pratik Sinha alleged that Zubair was arrested without notice, which is mandatory under law for the sections under which he has been held. He also said that no police person in the van in which Zubair was taken away was wearing any name tag.
“Zubair was called today by special cell, Delhi for investigation in a 2020 case for which he already had a protection against arrest from High Court. However, today at around 6.45 pm we were told he has been arrested in some other FIR for which no notice was given which is mandatory under law for the Sections under which he has been arrested. Nor FIR copy is being given to us despite repeated requests,” Sinha tweeted on Monday.
The arrest also triggered a slugfest with all major opposition parties and media organisations condemning Zubair’s arrest. The Editors Guild of India on Tuesday termed it “extremely disturbing” and demanded his immediate release.
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi alleged that every person exposing the BJP’s “hate, bigotry and lies” was a threat to them. “Arresting one voice of truth will only give rise to a thousand more. Truth always triumphs over tyranny,” he had said in a tweet.
The BJP, however, lashed out the Congress, accusing them of supporting and opposing judicial actions as per its convenience and asked if the opposition party has any faith in the judiciary or not.
BJP spokesperson Gaurav Bhatia said one cannot become a fact-checker only by proclaiming himself to be one. He has a chequered past and has posted tweets which have hurt religious feelings of a large section of Hindu society, Bhatia added.