Journalist Mohammed Zubair on Thursday moved the Delhi High Court challenging a Delhi Court’s order to send him in a four-day police remand.
The challenge to the police remand was filed before Justice Sanjeev Narula who is expected to hear the application moved by advocate Vrinda Grover, Zubair’s lawyer.
“Someone recently tweeted Zubair’s tweet of 2018, and the present case was filed. The anonymous Twitter handle had its very first tweet, which cited Zubair’s tweet, which has been picked up by police. The agency is playing mischief,” Zubair’s counsel submitted.
Two days ago, Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Snigdha Savaria had sent Zubair to police custody for four days as the police stated that he was “non-cooperative” and had to be taken to his residence in Bengaluru for the recovery of the phone/laptop used for posting the tweet that led to a complaint from a user.
Zubair’s lawyers had earlier told the CMM that he did not edit any image but used a still image from a Hindi film in his tweet, and that his arrest bordered on absurdity. The city court, however, said that this argument was of no assistance to Zubair at this stage.
Meanwhile, Zubair, on Thursday was brought to Bengaluru by a team from Delhi Police’s Special Cell who searched his home in connection with the case registered against him.
“Our four-member team, with Zubair who is in police custody, has reached his house in Bengaluru. Our team members are there to collect electronic evidence in relation to the case. This includes phone or laptop he must have used to post the tweet,” a senior officer told PTI.
Many including United Nations, international press bodies, opposition leaders across India, journalists and rights activists and thousands of social media users are calling for Alt News co-founder and journalist Mohammed Zubair to be immediately released.
The Muslim journalist has been under attack from Hindu nationalists for calling out hate speech by several Hindu monks and Hindutva politicians including Yati Narsinghanand, Mahant Bajrang Muni, Anand Swaroop, and Nupur Sharma.
