Journalist and fact-checker Mohammed Zubair filed a complaint with the Bengaluru Deputy Police Commissioner (East) on Monday, May 12 after receiving death threats on social media platform X. Zubair, who is the co-founder of fact-checking website Alt News, sought immediate protection and registration of a First Information Report (FIR) against the perpetrators.
In his complaint, Zubair said that some Hindu right-wing accounts doxxed his personal details, address, and contact number threatening to send pork to his residence in a bid to hurt his religious sentiments.
Attaching screenshots of the threats, Zubair sought action against them under sections 196 (promoting enmity), 197 (assertions prejudicial to national integration), 351 (criminal intimidation), 352 (intentional insult), and 353 (public mischief) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) along with the IT Act.
“These tweets disclosing my address and phone number are meant to compromise my safety and can lead to mob violence against me,” Zubair wrote in his complaint. He said that threats should be viewed in context of the slew of hatred he has been receiving. He reminded the police that in the past too he was openly subjected to a series of death threats and targeted aggressively on X.
Zubair revealed that these online attacks have already escalated into offline intimidation. In the past, some of these accounts had actually sent pork to his residence, an act of provocation to offend his Muslim religious beliefs.
Zubair specified one account – @Cyber_Huntss, which shared his address and personal information, inciting others to target him in a coordinated fashion. Zubair said that he had filed a complaint against the account in 2023 with the Bengaluru police but added that the case was closed within a few months.
Zubair said that the mentioned X accounts were using their social media presence to incite mob violence against him by spreading lies and falsehoods by targeting his Muslim identity.
“This is the second instance that these handles have targeted me, releasing my personal details such as address, phone number with threats.”
“If action is not taken now, it will result in impunity and continued threat to my life,” Zubair wrote, warning that such attacks not only endanger his safety but also create a “chilling effect” on other journalists, fact-checkers, and citizens who speak out against fake news and hate speech.
“I have a grave apprehension of harm to my life and limb and that of my family from the above said persons and their followers, and therefore request that an FIR may be registered at the earliest so that prompt action can be taken against the offenders and the threat to my life, limb and reputation is duly removed in accordance of the law,” the complaint read.