An Uttar Pradesh court on Saturday denied bail to Alt News co-founder Mohammed Zubair in a case registered against him for fact-checking a report broadcast by Hindi television channel.
The magistrate’s court in Lakhimpur Kheri noted that the offences Mr. Zubair was accused of were non-bailable and that the circumstances of the case and the gravity of the offences did not entitle him to be released on bail at this stage of the investigation.
The court relied on the case diary of the local police to note that the fact-check posted by the journalist was widely retweeted with the intention to incite hatred among different communities and anger them. The court again relied on the case diary to put on record that the police purportedly have evidence that Mr. Zubair’s post had the potential to spread communal riots.
The court said the police claimed to have recorded statements of “independent witnesses” who allegedly testified to this before them.
The case was registered against Mr. Zubair at the Mohammadi police station for May 2021 fact-check. In this post, the journalist had revealed that Sudarshan TV, a Hindi television channel, had superimposed an image of a famous Medina mosque on an image of the Gaza strip to incorrectly show it was being destroyed in purported Israeli air-strikes. A journalist from the said channel first went to court with a complaint against Mr. Zubair for this, following which the court ordered an FIR in the case.
During the hearing on Saturday, Advocate Harjit Singh, appearing for Mr. Zubair, argued that the journalist had posted the said fact-check in good faith because of the possibility that the false news report could lead to trouble. Mr. Singh also submitted that the journalist had tagged the Twitter accounts of U.P. Police, Noida Police, and the Director-General of U.P. Police on the fact-check so that appropriate action could be taken against the said news channel for misreporting.
Mr. Singh argued, “Instead of taking action against Sudarshan News, the police registered a case against the accused (Zubair) for offences which are prima facie not made out.”
The police, opposing the bail application, claimed Mr. Zubair had posted the fact-check by allegedly manipulating the channel’s report with the alleged intention to incite feelings of Muslims. And because this was retweeted by people from all around the world, this allegedly ruined the image of India internationally, the police claimed.
Local police in Lakhimpur Kheri have already sought Mr. Zubair’s police custody in this case and the application is set to be heard on July 20.
