Journalist Mohammad Zubair Arrested, Alleged of hurting Religious Sentiments

Journalist Mohammad Zubair, the co-founder of fact-checking website AltNews, was arrested by the Delhi Police on Monday for hurting religious sentiments and promoting enmity. AltNews co-founder Prateek Sinha said that Mohammad Zubair was called by the Delhi Police for questioning in a 2020 case, but the arrest has taken place in another case. Sinha alleged that the mandatory notice was not given. He tweeted, 'Despite repeated requests, we are not being given the copy of the FIR.' Reportedly, Zubair has been arrested by Delhi police under sections 153/295 IPC.

Police said Zubair had joined the investigation, the case was registered at the Special Cell police station, and was arrested "after having sufficient evidence". Zubair is still being questioned and the police will produce him before a magistrate on Tuesday to seek further custody. In fact, the Delhi Police had received a complaint from a Twitter handle, in which it was alleged that Mohammad Zubair had intentionally insulted the deities of religion by tweeting such an objectionable picture. It was said in the complaint that this tweet was continuously retweeted and it appears that there is such an army on social media, which is involved in this work along with disturbing the peace and order.

As per the Delhi Police Senior Officials, "Present case registered on basis of a post on Twitter by a Twitter Handle "Hanuman Bhakt" where he showed his anger against another Twitter handle in name of Mohammed Zubair regarding the post “BEFORE 2014: Honeymoon Hotel. After 2014: Hanuman Hotel”.

Founded in 2017 as a non-profit organization, AltNews is one of the world's foremost fact-checking organizations. Its founders have been facing online trolling and police cases for years. One of the most recent cases against Zubair was registered about a month ago in the Sitapur district of Uttar Pradesh on a similar charge for which he has been arrested in Delhi.

Congress Leader Shashi Tharoor took to Twitter and wrote, "India’s few fact-checking services, especially AltNews, perform a vital service in our post-truth political environment, rife with disinformation. They debunk falsehoods to whoever perpetrates them. To arrest Zubair is an assault on truth. He should be released immediately.

Congress MP Rahul Gandhi condemned the arrest and wrote, "Every person exposing BJP's hate, bigotry and lies is a threat to them. Arresting one voice of truth will only give rise to a thousand more. The truth ALWAYS triumphs over tyranny. #DaroMat