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.
After this bail plea was dismissed, the police moved an application seeking Mr. Zubair’s custody for 12 days, saying they needed to seize the mobile phone he was using when the May 27 tweet was posted. The police submitted that Mr. Zubair had told them this phone was in Bengaluru and that only he can help them get it, so they need his custody to take him there and seize the phone.
The police added that the tweet in question had the potential to cause communal tensions and law and order problems, and hence Mr. Zubair needed to be put through intense interrogation.
While granting the Sitapur police six days’ custody of Mr. Zubair, the court said that given the circumstances of the case and the grave nature of offences Mr. Zubair stands accused of, “it seems important for the mobile phone, with which the tweet was posted, to be seized by the authorities”.
During the hearing, Mr. Zubair’s counsel argued that the FIR registered by the Sitapur police and their subsequent application for police remand was nothing but an attempt to harass the journalist, and that there was no need for police custody for the purpose of evidence collection. They added that in case the court decided to grant police remand, it must also direct that the police ensure his security during his custody.
Accordingly, Judicial Magistrate (first class) Abhinav Shrivastav in his order directed the police to refrain from inflicting any physical or mental torture upon Mr. Zubair and prevented the police from using any “third-degree” interrogation methods. The court also directed that Mr. Zubair should not be unnecessarily harassed and held that the police will be wholly responsible for his security during the custody period.
The court also allowed Mr. Zubair’s counsel to be present during police interrogations but at an appropriately safe distance from where they would not be able to interfere with any of the police procedures.
Mr. Zubair will be held in the Sitapur Jail till 10 a.m. on July 8, when the local police will take his custody, one of the lawyers who is part of his legal team told The Hindu.
The FIR, in this case, pertains to a May 27 tweet by Mr. Zubair, wherein he referred to Hindu seers Bajrang Muni, Yati Narsinghanand and Anand Swaroop as “hate mongers”. The FIR was registered at the Khairabad Police Station in Sitapur district, under Section 295A of the IPC and Section 67 of the IT Act, on a complaint from the district head of an outfit known as Rashtriya Hindu Sher Sena. On Thursday, the police informed the Sitapur court that they had now added Section 153A of the IPC to the case as well.
All three of the abovementioned Hindu leaders have been accused in cases of hate speech against Muslims in the last few months.
