Alt News co-founder Mohammed Zubair arrested for hurting religious sentiments; had made Hinduphobic tweets, posts

New Delhi, June 28: Mohammed Zubair, who is co-founder of Alt News, known for spreading leftist propaganda, has been arrested by the Delhi Police under Section 153, 295 of the Indian Penal Code. He has been arrested for hurting religious sentiments and inciting riots.

 

 

 

The case was filed on a complaint by a man who tagged the Delhi Police on Twitter. He had called out Zubair for mocking and insulting Hindu gods and goddesses on the internet. Newsbharati has earlier reported he had deleted his Facebook account due to Hinduphobic posts and later deleted controversial tweets.

 

 

Zubair has been charged under sections 153 (Wantonly giving provocation with intent to cause riot) and 295A (Deliberate and malicious acts intended to outrage religious feelings of any class by insulting its religion or religious beliefs) of the Indian Penal Code. Later in the day, Zubair was produced at the Duty Magistrate's residence in Delhi's Burari. He was then sent to one day police custody.

 

Pratik Sinha, another co-founder of Alt News, shared a message on Twitter about Zubair’s arrest. He had claimed that Zubair was being investigated by Delhi Police special cell for a 2020 case. He claimed Zubair already had protection against arrest in this case from Delhi High Court. However, at 6:45 PM he was informed of another FIR on him and he was subsequently arrested. In a subsequent tweet, Sinha said, "After the medical examination, Zubair is being taken to an undisclosed location. Neither Zubair’s lawyers or I are being told where. We are in the police van with him. No police person is wearing any name tag."

 

 

Reportedly, the social media post by Zubair hurt religious sentiments after a picture (in tweet) showed where the signboard of a hotel 'Honeymoon hotel' was changed to 'Hanuman hotel'.

 

 

 

The present case was registered on basis of a post on Twitter by handling Hanuman Bhakt @ balajikijaiin where he showed his anger against another Twitter handle in name of Mohammed Zubair regarding the post "BEFORE 2014: Honeymoon Hotel. After 2014: Hanuman Hotel", informed Delhi police senior officials.

 

 

"The said post of Mohammed Zubair containing pictures and words against a particular religious community is highly provocative and done deliberately which are more than sufficient to incite hatred among people which can be detrimental for maintenance of public tranquillity," said Delhi Police.

 

It should be noted that Zubair is the one who was catalyzing the Prophet Muhammad controversy. He fueled the campaign against the former BJP spokesperson, Nupur Sharma, who made a controversial remark against the Prophet during a TV debate. Due to fear, later, he deleted his own Facebook profile after his old Hinduphobic posts went viral on social media.

 

 

It was the same Twitter account that reported it - The Hawk Eye. He posted a thread about how Zubair had been passing derogatory comments on Hindu gods and beliefs. In one tweet shared by Hawk Eve, Zubair is seen mocking shivling, and comparing it with the top view of the Vatican City.

 

He said the post comparing Shivling with the Vatican City inspired him to come up with a parody Facebook page ‘Unofficial: Subramanian Swamy’ in 2014. Apart from mocking Hindu gods, he also ridiculed Hindu beliefs and insulted the Sanskrit language. The threads went viral on social media. Following this, fearing getting trolled, Zubair deactivated his Facebook profile (AltNewsZubair).