Days after a Delhi court denied bail to journalist Mohammed Zubair and sent him to 14 days of judicial custody over allegations of accepting funds from foreign countries, digital fact-checking portal Alt News — which Zubair co-founded — has categorically denied these allegations. On Monday, July 4, Alt News issued a statement saying that the case is an “attempt to shut down the very critical work that we do”.
“The allegations claim that we have received funds from foreign sources from whom we cannot receive donations. These allegations are categorically false,” the statement, posted on the official Alt News Twitter handle, read. The Delhi Police had said that Pravda Media, under which Alt News operates, received over Rs 2 lakh through various transactions where either the mobile phone number or the IP address of the payee was of foreign countries. Refuting this, Alt News said, “Our payment platform through which we receive donations does not allow receipt of funds from foreign sources, and we have received donations from Indian bank accounts only.”
It said that all payments received go directly to the organisation’s bank account. Dismissing allegations of Zubair receiving donations from these countries to his personal account, Alt News said, “The allegation that individuals associated with the organisation have received funds in their personal accounts is also false since the individuals associated with the organisation only get monthly remuneration.”
“All of this is an attempt to shut down the very critical work we do, and we will fight this attempt to shut us down and come out on top,” the statement added.
The Patiala House court in Delhi had on Saturday sent the Alt News co-founder Mohammad Zubair, who was arrested last Monday, to judicial custody for 14 days. The order was passed at 7 pm, and controversy had erupted after the police leaked the news to the media that his bail had been denied despite the magistrate not officially pronouncing the order. Zubair’s lawyer told the media that it was “extremely scandalous that even before judicial magistrate sat in court, the police leaked the order to media."
This was after he spent four days in police custody, and the Delhi Police sought additional time as he allegedly had not been cooperating during the investigation and that devices he had used for tweeting had to be recovered. Zubair had tweeted an image from a movie, however an anonymous Twitter account claimed that sentiments of Hindus had been hurt, based on which the Delhi police arrested him.
Zubair was summoned by the Delhi police in a 2020 POCSO case, but was arrested in an entirely different case on June 28. His arrest has sparked widespread condemnation from journalists and activists. Editors Guild of India termed his arrest as "extremely disturbing". "It is apparent that AltNews' alert vigilance was resented by those who use disinformation as a tool to polarise society and rake nationalist sentiments," the Guild had said in a statement.
DIGIPUB had condemned the arrest too, calling for his immediate release. “In a democracy, where every individual possesses the right to exercise the freedom of speech and expression, it is unjustifiable that such stringent laws are being used as tools against journalists, who have been accorded the role of playing watchdog against the misuse of institutions of the state,” a statement by DIGIPUB said.