Alt News co-founder Mohammed Zubair charged with destruction of evidence, receiving foreign funds

In fresh trouble for Alt News co-founder Mohammed Zubair, the Delhi Police brought in more charges against him in a case related to an alleged objectionable tweet he had posted in 2018.

Delhi Police have invoked sections 201 (causing disappearance of evidence), 120B (criminal conspiracy) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), and section 35 of the Foreign Contribution Regulation Act (FCRA) for allegedly receiving foreign donations.

Investigators have confiscated Zubair’s mobile phone and recovered a hard disk as part of the probe. Police alleged that he formatted his mobile phone and deleted certain tweets.

A bail application has been filed by Mohammed Zubair’s counsel.

Mohammed Zubair 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 the Chief Metropolitan Magistrate (CMM).

Zubair was initially charged under sections 153 (wantonly giving provocation with intent to cause riot) and 295A (deliberate and malicious acts intended to outrage religious feelings of any class by insulting its religion or religious beliefs) of the IPC.

The addition of sections 120B, 201 of the IPC and 35 FCRA paves the way for the Enforcement Directorate to lodge a case against Zubair. As section 120B (criminal conspiracy) is a scheduled offence, the financial probe agency is now in a position to lodge a case.

Delhi Police are also looking into the alleged role of Twitter profiles indulging in ‘Twitter storms’ started by Zubair. The police stated that some of these tweets were recently deleted, but they are working on finding the trail.

Earlier this week, police had written to multiple banks seeking information about Zubair’s account details and other financial transactions.