The Supreme Court, while granting bail to Alt News co-founder Mohammed Zubair in multiple alleged hate speech cases, said that the criminal justice machinery was "relentlessly employed" against the fact-checker, adding that arrest must not be used as a "punitive tool."
"As evident from the facts narrated above, the machinery of criminal justice has been relentlessly employed against the petitioner (Zubair)," the bench headed by Justice DY Chandrachud said in its 21-page judgment.
In the verdict that was issued on 20 July and subsequently uploaded on its website on Monday, 25 July, the bench, which also comprised Justices Surya Kant and AS Bopanna, said that Zubair was subjected to multiple probes across the country despite the fact that the same tweets gave rise to similar offences in the First Information Reports (FIRs).