The Delhi High Court on Thursday, 2 March, demanded to know from the Delhi Police what action had been taken against the man who posted offensive tweets against Alt News Co-founder Mohammed Zubair in August 2020.
“My question is you found nothing against this man (Zubair) and did not put his name in chargesheet. What about this person who put those offensive tweets? What did you do regarding this gentleman (xx)?”Justice Bhambhani
Here's what happened: The man in question had reportedly abused Zubair following which, the fact checker shared his profile picture of asked if it was appropriate for him to use derogatory language in replies while using a profile picture with his granddaughter in it.
Zubair had however, blurred the face of the minor girl in his tweet.
"Hello XXX. Does your cute grand daughter know about your part time job of abusing people on social media? I suggest you to change your profile pic," he had said.
This led the user to lodge multiple complaints against Zubair and accusing him of causing cyber sexual harassment of his grand-daughter.
'No criminality' said Delhi Police: In the FIR lodged in Delhi, offences under the POCSO Act, Section 509B of IPC, Sections 67 and 67A of the Information Technology Act were invoked against Zubair.
But the Delhi Police did not mention Zubair's name in the chargesheet.
Earlier this year, the Delhi Policenformed court that no criminality was found in the tweet posted by Zubair.
The police in May last year said that no cognizable offence was made out against Zubair.
NCPCR, however, contended that the status report filed by the Police shows that Zubair has been trying to evade investigation and was not fully cooperating.
More details: Zubair was granted interim protection from arrest on September 9 2020 by Justice Yogesh Khanna.
Meanwhile, The fact checker's lawyer informed the court that he would withdraw his plea seeking quashing of the FIR provided that the court recorded that Zubair was not named in the chargesheet filed by Delhi police.
Justice Bhambhani, who is now hearing the case, listed the matter for further consideration on 13 March.
(With inputs from LiveLaw)
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