The Supreme Court has agreed to hear the bail plea of Alt News co-founder Mohammed Zubair on Friday, for charges of allegedly hurting religious sentiments following a complaint by a social media user in Uttar Pradesh who referred to a tweet from 2018.
Senior advocate Colin Gonsalves, appearing for Zubair, told the Supreme Court, “There is a threat to his life as people out there are threatening him”. Advocate Colin, appearing for Zubair, said that his anticipatory bail was rejected by the Allahabad High Court and subsequently he was arrested. Justice Indira Banerjee has agreed to list the matter tomorrow (Friday), subject to clearance by the Chief Justice of India.
A senior police officer said the tweet purportedly showed an image of a hotel, with its board reading ‘Honeymoon hotel’ repainted to ‘Hanuman hotel’. The complainant posted a screenshot, tagged Delhi Police, and wrote: “Linking our God Hanuman ji with honeymoon is a direct insult of Hindus because he is brahmchari. Kindly take action against this guy @delhipolice.”
“We came across the tweet last week. Zubair had posted this tweet in 2018 but people have been raising the issue recently.” The police said they filed an FIR against Zubair in connection with the complaint.
Zubair was arrested weeks after he called out now-suspended BJP spokesperson Nupur Sharma’s derogatory comments against Prophet Mohammed. Delhi police have registered an FIR against Sharma but so far not arrested her.
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