Mohammad Zubair’s tweet effort to get fame, says Delhi Police, seeks 5-day custody

Several news arose of fact-checking website Alt News' co-founder Mohammad Zubair, who was arrested on Monday. Zubair was arrested for putting up ‘objectionable’ posts on Twitter in 2018, said Delhi police.

In the latest update Delhi Police sought a 5-day further remand of  Zubair. Police say, other FIRs also registered against him in different matters. Meanwhile, Delhi court reserved order on Delhi police plea seeking further custody of Zubair.

Zubair was brought to the Patiala Court House on Tuesday by the Delhi Police, wherein the latter stated that Zubair had allegedly used controversial tweets to hurt religious feelings in effort to get fame.

Delhi Police's lawyer, while producing Mohammad Zubair before the Chief Metropolitan Magistrate of Patiala House Court, says, "We have arrested him as he was not cooperating during the investigation. When he joined the probe, all apps were deleted from his phone; it was blank."

Further Delhi Police said Zubair had intentionally formatted his phone and also refused to co-operate with authorities in the investigation against him in connection with an "objectionable" tweet, providing grounds for his arrest.

"Mohammad Zubair's objectionable tweet led to a Twitter storm with hate speeches, detrimental to communal harmony. Two things including technical gadget and intention was important. He was evasive on both, the phone was formatted. This formed grounds for his arrest," said KPS Malhotra, DCP IFSO.

The official said that Delhi Police will seek more remand time to question him.

The police official further refuted reports that Zubair's arrest was "politically motivated."

The post that allegedly hurt religious sentiments was a picture shared by Zubair which shows where a signboard of hotel ‘हनीमून होटल ’ changed to ‘हनुमान होटल ’.

Reportedly, a Twitter user Hanuman Bhakt @ balajikijaiin tweeted, ‘Linking our God Haunman ji with honeymoon is a direct insult of Hindus because he is brahmchari. Kindly take action against this guy’, following which the Alt News co-founder was arrested.

"In such cases, finding the gadget used to post such tweets and the intention behind posting such a tweet is important. During questioning, he has been evasive on both the fronts. We found out that his phone was formatted. His evasiveness formed the grounds for his arrest," said KPS Malhotra, Deputy Commissioner of Police (Intelligence Fusion & Strategic Operations).

Zubair's arrest drew widespread condemnation, especially as it came after the arrest of Human Rights Activist Teesta Setalvad. Zubair's arrest was slammed by Opposition's Shashi Tharoor, Rahul Gandhi, Mohua Moitra, and from various quarters, including journalists' bodies.

Further news arose that Zubair had received ₹50 lakh in his account in the last three months which was later refuted by his colleague and co-founder Pratik Sinha.

Sinha shared the news article on Twitter and said, "Fact-check: Absolutely lies. Police is linking donations received by Alt News to Zubair. All the money that Alt News receives goes to the organisations bank and not any individuals. The bank statement of Zubair's personal account of which I have a copy debunks this falsehood."

Pratik has alleged Zubair was arrested without notice - which is mandatory under law for the sections under which he has been held. He also said that no police person in the van in which Zubair was taken away was wearing any name tag.

Earlier this month, a case against Zubair was registered under sections 153A (promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion, race, place of birth, language etc.) and 295A (deliberate and malicious act intended to outrage religious feelings) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), the DCP said.

However, he was arrested in connection with one of his tweets that had a questionable image with a purpose to deliberately insult the god of a particular religion, he said.

Police said the case was registered on the complaint of a Twitter user who accused Zubair of hurting religious sentiments.