AltNews' Mohammed Zubair gets interim bail for 5 days from SC in Sitapur case, remains in Delhi Police custody

The Supreme Court on Friday granted interim for “five days” to Alt News co-founder, who was arrested last month by Delhi Police over a tweet shared by him in 2018. Zubair was granted interim bail on the condition that he will not post any fresh tweets on the issue related to the case and not leave jurisdiction of Delhi Magistrate.

"Zubair shall not tamper with electronic evidence in Bengaluru or anywhere else," a vacation bench of Justices Indira Banerjee and JK Maheshwari said while granting Zubair interim bail in connection with a case registered against him in Uttar Pradesh’s Sitapur for allegedly hurting religious sentiments through a tweet. 

Zubair had moved the top court on Thursday seeking bail and submitted that there is a "new" police strategy afoot in hate speech cases and communal crimes where FIRs are registered against criminals as well as those monitoring and protesting such crimes. 

Mentioning the plea before a bench of Justices Indira Banerjee and J K Maheshwari, senior Advocate Colin Gonsalves claimed that Zubair was facing a threat to his life. The appeal by the journalist from the fact-checking website sought a stay of the investigation in the Sitapur FIR and direct the UP government not to proceed, prosecute or arrest the petitioner. 

Gonsalves today argued in court that no criminal case can be made out against Zubair. “The foundation of this case is a tweet. We seek quashing of proceedings, and questions of police or judicial custody are irrelevant now. There’s no case made out and the proceedings need to be quashed,” he told the apex court, according to news agency ANI. 

“What has this country has come to. The person who exposes it is in jail and the person continuing is on bail. Hate mongers made remarks on Constitution, judges. Zubair has exposed this kind of venomous language against judges, Constitution…and he’s in jail for it,” Gonsalves added. 

Meanwhile, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, appearing for the UP Police, accused the fact-checker of “suppression of facts” and alleged that his petition did not mention that his bail plea was rejected yesterday by the Sitapur court. Gonsalves, in response, told the apex court that it was mentioned in the petition that the Sitapur police was seeking police custody of the journalist.

Zubair submitted that the allegations in the impugned FIR (lodged in Sitapur) even if taken on its face value and if accepted in entirety do not prima facie disclose any offence, and that is a fit ground for quashing of FIR, as has been held in a catena of judgements of the apex court.