Hours after being granted bail by the Supreme Court in a case registered against him in Uttar Pradesh's Sitapur, the Lakhimpur Kheri police issued a fresh warrant against fact-checker and co-founder of Alt News, Mohammed Zubair, over a case registered against him in 2021 for allegedly spreading enmity between religious groups.
The FIR was registered in September last year at the Mohammadi police station on a Lakhimpur Kheri court's order, the warrant for which was issued to Zubair at the Sitapur district jail on Friday, asking him to appear before the court by 11 July.
In the FIR accessed by The Quint, the complainant by the name of Ashish Kumar Katiyar accused Zubair of propagating fake news on Twitter with the motive of disturbing communal harmony, following which a case was registered under Section 153-A (promoting enmity between two groups) of the Indian Penal Code.
'Relief' From SC
The Supreme Court on Friday, 8 July, granted five-day interim bail to Zubair in Uttar Pradesh police's FIR against him over his reference in a tweet to certain Hindu seers as ‘hatemongers.’ The court said that the order pertains to the ‘hatemongers’ case FIR, and not any other FIR against him.
The court also further ordered that the bail is subject to the following conditions:
Noting the solicitor general's submission that Zubair is presently in judicial custody in connection with a different offence, registered in Delhi, the court said: "We are not concerned with any FIR other than the FIR dated 1 June 2022."
Despite the relief, Zubair has not been released since he continues to be in judicial custody in connection with an FIR registered by the Delhi Police for allegedly hurting religious sentiments and promoting enmity through his tweet made in 2018, in which he had shared an image from a Hindi film that showed the signboard of a hotel visibly changed from 'Honeymoon Hotel' to 'Hanuman Hotel.'
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