SC to hear plea of Alt News co-founder Mohammed Zubair on quashing FIR tomorrow

New Delhi, July 11: The Supreme Court will on Tuesday hear a plea of journalist and Alt News co-founder Mohammed Zubair challenging the Allahabad high court's refusal to quash a first information report (FIR) registered against him by the Uttar Pradesh police.

A bench of Justices DY Chandrachud and AS Bopanna will hear the plea of Alt-news co-founder Zubair tomorrow.

Last week, the apex court granted interim relief to Mohammad Zubair in an FIR lodged at Sitapur by the Uttar Pradesh police for hurting religious sentiments.

When Solicitor General Tushar Mehta told the court that the grant of interim bail would not lead to his release as he is in judicial custody owing to a Delhi court order, the SC said that this relief is applicable only to the Sitapur case and not any other pending case against Zubair.

During the hearing, senior advocate Colin Gonsalves, appearing for Zubair, said his anticipatory bail was rejected by the Allahabad High Court and subsequently he was arrested.

Zubair is guilty of purposefully suppressing the information about his bail being rejected on Thursday and the UP Police being handed over his custody in connection with the FIR related to his tweet calling Hindu priests hate mongers, Mehta told the court.

Zubair only said till hate mongers like this are there, who else do we need. All the others are released on bail but I, a secular tweeter, was arrested. When I call them hatemongers I am not wrong, Gonsalves said in his submissions.

The FIR was lodged against Zubair under IPC section 295A (deliberate and malicious act intended to outrage religious feelings) and section 67 of the IT Act here on a complaint by Hindu Sher Sena Sitapur district president Bhagwan Sharan on June 1.

Mohammed Zubair, a fact-checker, was arrested by the Delhi Police last week in a case related to an "objectionable tweet" he had posted in 2018 against a Hindu deity.

The Delhi Police has invoked new provisions -- sections 120B (criminal conspiracy) and 201 (destruction of evidence) of the Indian Penal Code(IPC) and section 35 of the Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act against Zubair.