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.
