Mohammed Zubair, the co-founder of fact-checking website Alt News, was remanded to four-day police custody on Tuesday, June 28. He was arrested by the Delhi Police on Monday, June 27, for allegedly hurting religious sentiments and inciting riots.
Following his arrest, he was presented before a Delhi court late Monday night. The court denied the bail application of Mohammed Zubair, while granting 1-day custody to Delhi Police.
On Tuesday, the Delhi Police sought further custody of Zubair for investigation. The court granted Delhi Police 4-day custody of Mohammed Zubair.
WHAT IS THE CASE?
Mohammed Zubair was arrested by Delhi Police on Monday. He has been charged under sections 153 (Wantonly giving provocation with intent to cause riot) and 295A (Deliberate and malicious acts intended to outrage religious feelings of any class by insulting its religion or religious beliefs) of the Indian Penal Code.
Zubair was arrested by the IFSO (Intelligence Fusion & Strategic Operations) unit of Delhi Police after a Twitter handle alerted the police about tweets that were detrimental to communal harmony. He was summoned on Monday for questioning in a 2020 case, but was later arrested in the 2022 case.
Delhi Police is also looking into the alleged role of Twitter profiles indulging in ‘Twitter storms’ stated by Zubair. The police stated that some of these tweets were recently deleted, but they are working on finding the trail.