A Sitapur court on Thursday denied bail to AltNews co-founder Mohammed Zubair in a case related to a May 2022 tweet of his, where he referred to hate speech accused Hindu seers as “hatemongers”, noting that the offences he was accused of were grave, cognizable and non-bailable in nature.
The same court later on Thursday remanded Mr. Zubair to six days in the custody of the Sitapur police, starting 10 a.m. on Friday, July 8, and ending at 12 p.m. on July 14, following which he must be produced before the concerned court.
Mr. Zubair was produced before the Sitapur court on Thursday where he first filed a bail application, arguing that offences under Sections 153A, 295A of the IPC and Section 67 of the Information Technology (IT) Act as alleged in the First Information Report (FIR) were not made out against him. While dismissing this application, the court also noted that the possibility of the accused repeating the actions he was accused of, tampering with evidence or influencing witnesses, could not be ruled out yet.
