#MohammedZubair : People want to believe parity of Indian Judiciary but...

Supreme Court's recent judgement on the Alt News Cofounder Mohammed Zubair case has led people to raise serious concerns about the Indian judiciary and its parity. The social media is going crazy about the Supreme Court's recent judgement for the Mohammed Zubair case and eventually netizens have challenged the apex court of India for the judgement with several similar cases that had been to the court but the response to all of them was the exact opposite end of the Mohammed Zubair hearing.

 

 

 

 

Mohammed Zubair, the co-founder of Alt News, who is more popular for propagating leftist agendas, was arrested last month by the Delhi Police under Section 153, 295 of the Indian Penal Code. The arrest was subject to the alleged crime of 'hurting religious sentiments and inciting riots', through a tweet.

 

Reportedly, the social media post by Zubair that hurt religious sentiments was a picture where the signboard of a hotel named 'Honeymoon hotel' was changed to 'Hanuman hotel'. The case was filed on a complaint by a man who tagged the Delhi Police on Twitter, calling out Zubair for his intended mockery and insult of Hindu gods and goddesses on internet.

 

The first judicial parallel of the Mohammed Zubair's case that was brought up on social media by netizens was with the Nupur Sharma case. Nupur Sharma in an interview of her regarding the Gyanvapi Masjid row had said something about Prophet Mohammed which was portrayed as 'offensive' in a way that would provoke the religious sentiments of Muslims. This job of provoking religious sentiments of Muslims across country and in cases even beyond Indian boundaries, was done by Mohammed Zubair's narrative of the story.

 

 

 

 

 

With Nupur Sharma receiving death threats for her statement about the prophet, the Supreme Court on Jul 1 ordered that it held the former BJP spokesperson responsible for the Udaipur killing and the situation taking place in India. The Apex Court also called her arrogant, which the court has not done before.

 

Further, the SC judges even asked Nupur Sharma to apologize on national television about her remarks on Mohammad Prophet. The exact words of the SC order on the Nupur Sharma case were, "What is her business to make these remarks?... The way she has ignited emotions across the country... This lady is single-handedly responsible for what is happening in the country."

 

 

 

 

On the contrary, the Supreme Court's response on the Mohammed Zubair seemed absolutely partial, where he, even though being involved in the same case because of his narrative, was not even considered to be one of the reasons for spiking the issue and causing violence in the country. His initial crime for which he had his first arrest; for hurting religious sentiments of Hindus, was not even mentioned by the court.

 

Further when it was demanded that either the 'journalist' should learn about responsible social media presence or shut down his presence on social media platforms, the SC further protected him saying that the court cannot stop Mohammed Zubair from tweeting. It said, "It is like telling a lawyer that you should not argue. How can we tell a journalist that he will not write or utter a word?"

 

However, this is not the only case where a parallel was drawn by netizens. The second one in line is the 'Ketaki Chitale case'. In fact, after the hearing for Mohammed Zubair, a question was raised by Ketaki herself regarding the contradiction of statement in the two cases which was upheld by netizens. Chitale was arrested in connection with an objectionable post on social media against NCP Chief Sharad Pawar. Over 20 FIRs were registered against Chitale in the case, and she was arrested on May 15 May and was imprisoned for 40 days.

 

 

 

 

Just like Zubair, Ketaki Chitale's case also involved social media posts. But the severity of posts differs in the two cases; Ketaki Chitale, through her post had hurt the sentiments of NCP supporters, whereas Zubair had hurt the sentiments of Hindus around the country. However, judicial custody of Chitle was 40 days and that of Zubair was merely 24 days. With that parallel drawn, netizens furhter questioned; "How is that fair? And what kind of justice is this?"

 

The third parallel drawn on social media is of the Alt News Co founder case and that of Nambi Narayanan. Nambi Narayanan, an ISRO scientist, was arrested on Nov 30 1994, as part of an investigation of falsely alleged espionage, which was later revealed. The case was based on the videographed statements by a colleague that he and Narayanan had received money for transferring drawings and documents of rocket engines to two Maldivian women, Mariam Rasheeda and Fauziyya Hassan, who were suspected to be spies.

 

 

 

 

The ISRO Scientist had to spend 50 days in jail for the false accusations. He was cleared off the false charges only in 1996, 2 years after the case was filed. Again, falsely alleged ISRO Scientist sends 50 days in jail where according to him he is physically abused to admit the crime which he had not committed whereas there is Mohammed Zubair, who even after spreading a false narrative that resulted into multiple deaths in the country, has to spend merely 24 days in jail.

 

 

 

 

 

In fact, netizens have even raised questions for why was Mohammed Zubair's case was even prioritized by the apex court despite of having several cases pending. Providing actual data, one twitter user stated, "Over 4,80,00,000 cases Pending in Judiciary Courts till date but they prioritized Mohammed Zubair case." Again the same question is raised, "Why does Mohammed Zubair receive special treatment by the Indian judicial system? Who is the judiciary trying to appease?"