The Supreme Court on Tuesday, July 12, extended the interim bail granted to Alt News co-founder Mohammed Zubair in a case filed against him in Uttar Pradesh for calling controversial Hindu extremists ‘hatemongers’. Zubair had moved the Supreme Court to quash the FIR against him. A bench of Justices DY Chandrachud and AS Bopanna was informed by Zubair’s counsel that his interim bail in the case expires on Tuesday. Additional Solicitor General SV Raju, appearing for the Uttar Pradesh government, sought time from the court to file a counter-affidavit. The court has granted four weeks to the state government to file the counter. The bench also extended Zubair’s interim bail till further orders.
The case against Zubair in Uttar Pradesh is under section 295A (deliberate and malicious act intended to outrage religious feelings) of the Indian Penal Code and section 67 of the IT Act. The case was registered after a complaint by Hindu Sher Sena Sitapur district president Bhagwan Sharan on June 1, citing Zubair’s tweet where he called three controversial Hindu leaders — Yati Narasinghanand, Mahant Bajrang Muni and Anand Swaroop — ‘hatemongers’. Zubair had been arrested by the Delhi Police on June 27, in another case, under charges of hurting religious sentiments through one of his tweets.
The Delhi Police has invoked new provisions — sections 120B (criminal conspiracy) and 201 (destruction of evidence) of the IPC and section 35 of the Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act — against Zubair.
Zubair had filed an appeal against the Allahabad High Court’s June 10 order, saying that it is a "new police strategy for registering FIRs in hate crime cases against the criminals as well as those monitoring and protesting hate crimes."
Zubair said that the allegations in the impugned FIR (lodged in Sitapur), even if taken on its face value and if accepted in entirety, do not prima facie disclose any offence. He contended that it is a fit ground for quashing of FIR, as has been held in a catena of judgements of the apex court. The appeal sought a stay of the investigation in the Sitapur FIR and direction to the UP government not to proceed, prosecute or arrest the petitioner.
Zubair had submitted that the video of his provocative and inflammatory hate speech went viral on social media resulting in campaigns and demonstrations seeking his arrest.
He added, "Those who engage in hate speech are numerous and many. They are well organised. They operate as a group identifying secular persons who speak out against hate speech and then contact one another to file multiple FIRs against innocent people who are speaking out bravely against hate speech.”
He added that an FIR was registered in Delhi alleging that he had put up an objectionable tweet and a similar FIR was lodged in Chhattisgarh and Uttar Pradesh.