UP Court Rejects Bail Plea of Md Zubair, Remands Him to 14-Day Judicial Custody

The FIR against Zubair is in connection with a tweet in which he had called some Hindutva leaders 'hate-mongers'.

Alt News co-founder Mohammed Zubair.

(Photo: The Quint)

Rejecting the bail plea of Alt News co-founder Mohammed Zubair in a case registered in Uttar Pradesh against him on the charge of allegedly hurting religious sentiments, a local court in Sitapur remanded him to judicial custody for 14 days.

The plea was rejected by judge Abhinav Srivastava, saying that it was possible that the accused may influence witnesses or repeat offences that he has been charged with. The bench also noted that the case was non-bailable, Bar and Bench reported.

The case against him Zubair is related to a tweet in which called Mahant Bajrang Muni, Yati Narsinghanand and Swami Anand Swaroop "hate-mongers."

He was charged under Sections 295A (deliberate and malicious acts, intended to outrage religious feelings of any class by insulting its religion or religious beliefs) and153A (promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion, race, place of birth, residence) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).

He was also charged under Section 67 of the Information Technology Act.

Zubair Moves Supreme Court

Meanwhile, Zubair moved the Supreme Court on Thursday, seeking to quash the First Information Report (FIR) registered against him in the case.

Senior advocate Colin Gonsalves appearing for Zubair also told the apex court that there is a serious threat to his life.

The matter was mentioned before a vacation bench of Justices Indira Banerjee and JK Maheshwari for urgent listing. The top court has agreed to hear his petition on Friday, 8 July.

Zubair was initially arrested on 27 June for allegedly hurting religious sentiments through a tweet he had posted in 2018.

The tweet was apparently carrying a "questionable image with a purpose to deliberately insult the god of a particular religion," the police said.

Notably, the questionable image in question is taken from the scene of a Bollywood movie Kissi Se Na Kehna, directed by Hrishikesh Mukherjee, which has aired on TV several times.

Zubair had, on 24 March 2018, tweeted a picture of the signboard of a hotel changed from 'Honeymoon Hotel' to 'Hanuman Hotel.'

"Before 2014 : Honeymoon Hotel. After 2014 : Hanuman Hotel. #SanskaariHotel," he had written.

(With inputs from Bar and Bench.)