A Delhi court granted bail on Friday to Alt News co-founder Mohammed Zubair in a case related to a tweet in 2018, stating, “The voice of dissent is necessary for healthy democracy. Therefore, for mere criticism of any political parties it is not justified to invoke Section 153A (promoting enmity) and 295A (deliberate and malicious acts to outrage religious feelings) of the IPC.”
Mr. Zubair was arrested by the Delhi Police on June 27 in this FIR, registered based on a social media complaint claiming it hurt religious sentiments of Hindus. The tweet in question contained an image from a 1983 CBFC-approved film Kissi Se Na Kehna where a fictional hotel’s name had been changed from “Honeymoon hotel” to “Hanuman hotel”. With this, Mr. Zubair had posted the text: “Before 2014: Honeymoon Hotel/ After 2014: Hanuman Hotel”.
Granting Mr. Zubair bail in this case, Additional Sessions Judge Devender Kumar Jangala held, “The applicant/accused is also stated to have used the words “Before 2014 and After 2014” to point out towards a political party. In Indian democracies the political parties are open for their criticism… The voice of dissent is necessary for healthy democracy.”
