New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Friday granted bail for five days to AltNews co-founder, Mohammed Zubair, in a case wherein he is accused of hurting religious sentiments through his tweets. However, the fact-checker has to languish in jail for now as he has not got bail in the case registered against him in Delhi. Zubair had approached the apex court on Thursday appealing to hear his plea on a urgent basis since he is facing 'death-threats'.
"Let the matter be posted before a regular bench. We will grant protection for few days on condition that you will not leave jurisdiction of this court and you will not put up more tweets. We will grant you interim bail for few days," the court ordered.
The judicial magistrate of Sitapur has been directed to decide upon the conditions to be imposed. The conditions include not posting any tweets and not leaving the jurisdiction of the first class magistrate. The apex court also said that there shall be no tampering with any evidence, electronic or otherwise.
The vacation bench comprising of Justice Indira Bannerjee and Justice JK Mahwshwari was hearing Zubair's plea challenging the FIRs registered against him for a tweet wherein he called Mahant Bajrang Muni, Yati Narsinghanand and Swami Anand Swaroop as hate mongers.
The Uttar Pradesh police charged him under Section 295A for hurting religious sentiments and also section 67 of the IT Act,2000 which was dropped later on. Journalist Mohammed Zubair sought protection from arrest before the apex court and also challenged the Allahabad High Court order that refused to quash the FIR registered by UP police.
Senior Advocate Colin Gonsalves appearing for Zubair on Friday argued before the court that Zubair was involved in identifying hate speeches so that the police can investigate the crime, however he taken to jail instead. "See my lords what this country has come to. The person who is exposing it is in jail and person responsible is not," argued Gonsalves. He also questioned the need for investigation when Zubair has himself admitted his tweet and there was no case made out it.
"Why do we need hate mongers when we already have news anchors. I am speaking just in terms of people who were arrested by people on hate speech. Now where is my crime? I have not spoken against any religion," argued Gonsalves.
Solicitor General Tushar Mehta arguing against Zubair claimed that the fact-checker suppressed many facts and deleted many tweets. "Its something more than meets the eye," he argued.
"Man Bajrang Muni is well respected guru from Sitapur. Now the moment you make a statement against a religious guru you will have to go under investigation. You can't say that it was not your intent," said Additional Solicitor General SV Raju appearing on behalf of the state of Uttar Pradesh. SV Raju further said that Zubair called a religious guru a hate monger that outraged the feelings of the people.
