India’s Supreme Court grants ad-interim bail to Zubair in UP case
India's Supreme Court today (July 8, 2022) granted five-day interim bail to fact-checking portal Alt News co-founder Mohammed Zubair in connection with an FIR registered in Uttar Pradesh state for allegedly hurting religious sentiments.
The top court made it clear that its interim bail order is with respect to the FIR lodged in UP's Sitapur against Zubair and has nothing to do with a separate case registered against him in Delhi.
For all latest news, follow The Daily Star's Google News channel. Zubair was arrested by the Delhi Police over an "objectionable" tweet shared in 2018.
The apex court granted bail on the condition that Zubair will remain within the jurisdiction of the Delhi magistrate and not post any tweets until then, our New Delhi correspondent reports.
On Thursday, Zubair had approached the Supreme Court seeking bail in a case registered in Uttar Pradesh related to tweets referring to some Hindu religious leaders as "hate mongers".
Representing Zubair, senior lawyer Colin Gonsalves argued in the 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 ANI.
"What has this country 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.
Solicitor General of India Tushar Mehta countered Gonsalves' contention saying the matter was not about the tweet but rather to ascertain whether Zubair was "part of a syndicate to put out such tweets to destabilize the society," Bar & Bench portal reported.
Mehta also alleged there was a "money angle" involved.
The Supreme Court's interim bail to Zubair means he cannot yet walk free as he remains in custody in connection with the case filed in Delhi.
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