Case Title: Mohammed Zubair v. State
Mohammed Zubair, a co-founder of Alt News, has informed the Delhi High Court that he has not provided any information to the investigating officer or any other police official while in prison or at any other time throughout the inquiry into the 2018 tweet case.
Zubair stated in his response to the status report submitted by Delhi Police last month that any disclosures relied upon by the police are utterly false, made up, and legally inadmissible. He has maintained that because they are outside the bounds of the law and inadmissible as evidence, any subsequent actions, such as searches and seizures based on fraudulent or invented disclosures, are similarly unlawful.
Zubair has categorically refuted the police's assertion which suggested he divulged that the laptop and phone he used to upload the allegedly offensive information were located at his home. According to him, he "clearly and precisely" informed the police that the cell phone used to send the tweet had been misplaced, for which a report had been made to Bengaluru's Crime Branch. Zubair responded, saying, "Furthermore, the tweet in issue plainly specifies that it was tweeted from an Android device (cell phone), hence it has no link to any laptop," claiming that the investigating officer violated the law and made a mockery of the due process by fabricating fake disclosure statements in order to support the inquiry.
"The statement attributed to me as a disclosure is manifestly wrong, false and concocted, to fabricate a non-existent ground to unlawfully raid my residence and seize my laptop and hard disk, which I use for my journalistic fact-checking work. The said search and seizure from my residence was thus carried out with mala fide reasons, extraneous to the need for investigation," states the reply.
Additionally, Zubair has refuted the police's assertion that he tweets to achieve fame.
"I categorically and specifically deny that in order to gain popularity I post content that triggers religious sentiments. I am a fact checker and I post content on social media debunking fake news, misinformation and disinformation of all kinds, and my work is not limited to any particular kind of posts, nor do I post content for popularity or any other material gain," he has said in the reply.
Zubair has responded to the complaint, asking that the police be requested to hand over any items they may have that are not connected to the FIR's investigation. In September, the Delhi Police stated that Zubair's gadgets, which had been taken during the probe, were being examined at the Forensic Science Laboratory in Rohini and that he might ask the lower court to release them on superdari once the examination was over. Additionally, it was said that, if data could be recovered, it would be examined in relation to Mohd Zubair's 2018 tweet and "other similar natured tweets."
On July 27, the Delhi High Court requested the city police to respond to the petition. Zubair had already been granted bail by the Supreme Court in each of the six FIRs that the Uttar Pradesh police had filed in various areas as a result of his tweets, and those cases had been combined with the Delhi FIR. The fact-checker was "relentlessly utilised" by the criminal justice system against him, according to the Supreme Court, and he was caught in a "vicious circle of the criminal procedure."
Zubair was previously detained in a case that the Delhi Police had filed under Sections 153A of the Indian Penal Code (Promoting animosity between groups on the basis of religion, etc.) and 295 (Injuring or defiling places of worship with the aim to insult the religion of any class). Later, Zubair was further charged under Section 295A of the Indian Penal Code, as well as Sections 201 and 120B and Section 35 of the Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act, 2010. The complaint came from a Twitter account, where it was claimed that Zubair had tweeted a "questionable image with an intent to purposely offend the god of a certain faith," according to Delhi Police.
The FIR claims that Zubair's 2018 tweet about renaming a "Honeymoon Hotel" after the Hindu god Hanuman was offensive to their faith. According to the FIR, Zubair's statements and the image he used to disparage a certain religious group were extremely offensive and more than enough to stir up animosity in others, which might be harmful in preserving social peace. Zubair was detained by the UP Police in connection with the FIRs filed against him in relation to other tweets after the Delhi police FIR.