UP court rejects Alt News co-founder Mohd Zubair’s bail plea in fact-check case

The sessions court of Lakhimpur Kheri’s Mohammadi in Uttar Pradesh on Saturday rejected Alt News co-founder Mohd Zubair in a 2018 tweet case.

The information was shared by KP Singh, assistant prosecution officer. The journalist was summoned by a Lakhimpur Kheri court in a case registered against him in September 18, 2021, after a complaint was filed by a journalist of a news channel for a fact-check tweet. The court had sent him to judicial custody for 14 days on Monday.

In another development, the Hathras police has moved an application in the Court of Chief Judicial Magistrate seeking Zubair’s remand.

The warrant was issued against him in Mohammadi in a September 2021 case filed by a Sudarshan News employee for the fact-check tweet. A bail hearing in the case on July 13 was postponed till Saturday after the plaintiff raised an objection against the application from Zubair’s end that was filed in English.

On Friday, a Delhi court granted him bail in a case related to an allegedly objectionable tweet, observing that “the voice of dissent is necessary for a healthy democracy”. The FIR in this case was lodged on June 20 on the grounds of a complaint filed by the Duty Officer of the IFSO unit of the Delhi Police Special Cell, which tackles cyber crimes.

Zubair was first arrested on June 21 and sent to police custody after an First Information Report (FIR) was registered against him based on a Twitter posting, which another Twitter handle alleged that it “hurt Hindu sentiments.”