Court grants bail to Alt News co-founder Mohammad Zubair in tweet case

New Delhi, July 15: Sessions Court of Patiala House Court on Friday granted bail to Alt News co-founder Mohammad Zubair in connection with the 2018 tweet case.

It said that the accused Zubair cannot leave the country without prior permission of the court while granting him bail on a personal bail bond of Rs 50, 000.

On Thursday, the court reserved the order in the case for today. However, he will stay in jail for two cases filed in Uttar Pradesh.

"The voice of dissent is necessary for healthy democracy. Therefore, merely for the criticism of any political parties it is not justified to invoke section 153A and 295A IPC," Hindustan Times quoted the court as saying.

"Hindu religion is one of the oldest religions and most tolerant. The followers of the Hindu religion are also tolerant. Hindu religion is so tolerant that its followers proudly name their institution/organisation/facilities in the name of their Holy God or Goddess. A large number of Hindus proudly name their children in the name of their Holy God and Goddess," the court observed.

Opposing the bail plea on Thursday, Delhi Police special public prosecutor Atul Srivastava submitted that the bail should not be granted at this stage. "56 lakh rupees were received by the organisation where he (Mohd Zubair) is a director violating FCRA. We gave notice to the Razor pay. There is also a certain forgery in this case which may be done, we are looking at that. The bank's notice has already been issued," ANI quoted Delhi Police as saying.

The Police alleged that it was done in a planned and clever way. "It is not as simple as Zubair's lawyer has projected," Delhi Police lawyer submitted.

Srivastava submitted before the sessions court that Zubair through tweets hurt the sentiments of a community. "Hanuman ji is Brahmchari and he through his tweets compared Hanuman ji with Honeymoon," he said.

Advocate Vrinda Grover appearing for Mohd Zubair denied Delhi Police allegations of foreign funding. She submitted, "No foreign contribution has been received by me, neither in my personal nor in the organisation's account. We have invited people to donate to our organisation but it is boldly written that we don't accept foreign funding...as we're not registered under FCRA. Therefore we don't take foreign remittances. Our receiving of the donations and funding are very transparent." Zubair's lawyer, however, showed a screenshot of the Alt News portal which is clearly written that 'donate now' and was in the public domain.

"It is a Non-Profit Organization (NPO) under Pravada Media. He has not received any foreign contribution neither in the form of Indian currency nor in foreign currency," the lawyer submitted.

Advocate Vrinda Grover further submitted, "The picture in question used in the said tweet...is from Kissi Se Na Kehna released in 1983. Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) gave the certificate. I haven't edited the picture." Zubair's lawyer Vrinda Grover showed the movie clip to the Judge and added that the people of the country were enjoying many freedoms including the freedom to crack a joke. "Actor of the said movie Hrishikesh Mukherjee also did the same," she said.

The fact-checker is accused in a case related to an 'objectionable tweet' he had posted in 2018 against a Hindu deity. The case against Zubair was based on a complaint from a Twitter handle called Hanuman Bhakt alleging that Zubair had tweeted a questionable image with the intention to deliberately insult a Hindu God.

Zubair was arrested by the Delhi Police on June 27 and has continued to be in custody since then. He was initially booked for offences under Sections 153A (promoting enmity between religious groups) and 295 (injuring or defiling place of worship, with intent to insult the religion of any class) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).

Subsequently, offences under Section 35 of FCRA and Sections 201 (destruction of evidence) and 120b (criminal conspiracy) of the IPC were added.