AGENCIES
Alt News Co-founder Mohammed Zubair has been released from Tihar jail after he was granted interim bail by the Supreme Court on Wednesday.
The apex court had granted him interim bail in six cases filed against him across Uttar Pradesh for alleged hate speech. In its order, the apex court stated that there was no justification in keeping Zubair in continued custody. Of the six cases – two are registered in Hathras, one each in Muzaffarnagar, Ghaziabad, Lakhimpur Kheri and Sitapur districts. One case in Chandauli, where a chargesheet has already been filed, has also been transferred for trial before the Chief Judicial Magistrate in Delhi’s Patiala House Court.
Following the Supreme Court order, a Delhi court issued release warrants in seven cases filed against Zubair in UP and Delhi, his lawyer was quoted as saying by a news agency.
Duty Magistrate Amardeep Kaur issued the order after the counsel for the accused filed bail bond in all six cases lodged in UP and one in Delhi, in which he was granted bail earlier.
Though the apex court ordered the Tihar Jail Superintendent to ensure his release by 6 p.m., the fact-checker walked out of jail into a rainy night at well past 9 p.m. as his friends, who were on their way to pick him up, had to brave traffic snarls on water-logged roads to reach him.
The bail presents a decisive turn for Mr. Zubair, who has been booked in a “vicious cycle” of cases by the Delhi and Uttar Pradesh Police since his arrest in June 27.
“The existence of the power to arrest must be distinguished from the exercise of the power of arrest. The exercise of the power of arrest must be pursued sparingly,” a Bench of Justices D.Y. Chandrachud, Surya Kant and A.S. Bopanna told the U.P. government.
Uttar Pradesh Additional Advocate General Garima Prashad said the FIRs were not registered by the State out of “conscious viciousness”. Mr. Zubair’s tweets were “malicious”. He was paid to tweet. The cases were an effort made to maintain communal peace and harmony.
When Ms. Prashad urged the court to bar Mr. Zubair from tweeting, Justice Chandrachud shot back, saying “how can we tell a journalist not to write? How can we tell him he should not utter a word? If he does something wrong, he is answerable to the law… We cannot stop a citizen from using his voice”.
Advocate Vrinda Grover, for Mr. Zubair, said Uttar Pradesh had “weaponised” the criminal law to wreak vengeance on a journalist for debunking false information. He had been embroiled in one criminal case after the other for exposing hate speech.
Bail bonds
The court ordered the Tihar Jail Superintendent to ensure that necessary steps to release Mr. Zubair by 6 p.m. on Wednesday commence as soon as he produced his bail bonds before the Chief Judicial Magistrate at Patiala House courts in Delhi.
Though the court did not revoke the FIRs against Mr. Zubair, it gave him liberty to approach the Delhi High Court for quashing of any cases — present or future — that may be registered against him on the basis of these tweets. The Bench underscored that its bail order would protect the fact-checker if any future FIRs were registered on the basis of the very same tweets.
Justice Chandrachud, speaking for the court in the order, observed there was “absolutely no reason or justification” for the Uttar Pradesh Police to keep Mr. Zubair in continued custody any further and subject him to “endless rounds of proceedings before diverse courts” when the gravamen of the allegations arising out of his tweets were already the subject matter of a “fairly sustained” investigation by the Delhi Police. The Bench noted that Mr. Zubair had already been granted bail in the Delhi case