Donations to Mohammad Zubair’s website under scanner

New Delhi, Jun 30: The Delhi Police Special Cell is looking into the donations to the websites a day after the arrest of Mohammed Zubair, co-founder of fact checking site Alt News.

The police is said to have found Rs 50 lakh deposited in the website's account in the past three months, a Hindustan Times report said. It also said that the officers were investigating who is making the donations and if they are from across the border.

We will also see if the donations are not being used to convert black money into white, the report while citing officials said.

Further the Delhi police is also looking to bust the social media brigade which Zubair has. It appears that his tweets are planned and pushed in a concerted manner following which they are amplified by an army of people. If these are bots then who is paying these bots and we are digging deeper into the network which amplifies his tweets, the report also said.

The police also said that Zubair is not cooperating with the investigation and refused to hand over his electronic devices. He had also formatted his phone they said.

The Hawk Eye said on Twitter, ' recall two months back Zubair collected Rs 1 crore in in 24 hours. Collectively with M2S NGO they raised Rs 1.8 crore. 26 per cent of the funds were from overseas. Now the police have found Rs 50 lakh transactions from Zubair's account.

Recall. 2 months back Md Zubair collected 1Cr in 24hrs. Collectively with M2S NGO they raised 1.8Cr. An analysis (thread) was published next day. 26% of funds were from overseas.

Police found 50Lac transactions from Zubair's a/c now.@DelhiPolice may like to look into this.
1/ pic.twitter.com/IFLhoETtx5

— The Hawk Eye (@thehawkeyex) June 28, 2022

On April 24 The Hawk Eye said that M2S or Miles2Smile a not for profit organisation had raised RS 1 crore plus in just two days. Interestingly with 26 per cent overseas funds for resettlement of illegal encroachers, rioters and illegal immigrants. There may be FCRA violations also. Note that M2S has accepted crypto as well in past. So agencies must be aware that these are news tech-tactics. In any case, even if a single penny of donation is transacted from/into a "personal account", this is going to be a big soup.

Zubair was arrested by the Delhi Police under Sections 295 and 153A. He was sent to four days police remand. Formatting gadgets and non-cooperation in the investigation became the ground for his arrest, Intelligence Fusion and Strategic Operations (IFSO)'s Deputy Commissioner of Police K P S Malhotra said.