‘Criminal conspiracy’ charges against Mohammed Zubair, booked under FCRA

Days after Alt News co-founder Mohammed Zubair was arrested for allegedly hurting religious sentiments through a social media post, the Delhi Police added fresh charges against the journalist who has moved a petition to seek bail.

The Delhi Police has alleged ‘criminal conspiracy’ in the case by Mohammed Zubair, adding that the accused received donations from foreign countries. Section 35 under the Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act (FCRA), 2010, has been added to the FIR.

Atul Shrivastava has been appointed as the Special Public Prosecutor for Delhi Police in a case related to an alleged objectionable tweet by Alt News co-founder Mohammed Zubair.

The Delhi Police also sought the Alt News co-founder's custody for another two weeks as he was produced in a court today. However, the police have not sought further custodial interrogation.

Earlier on Friday, the Delhi high court on Friday sought a response from the Delhi Police on a plea by journalist and Alt News co-founder Mohammad Zubair challenging his four-day police custody and seizure of his electronic devices in connection with a tweet he posted in 2018.

Justice Sanjeev Narula issued notices on both the main petition that challenged a trial court order on June 28 of granting four days of custody of Zubair to police as well as an interim application that sought “restoration of all electronic devices seized from the accused”.

The court granted two weeks to the police to file their response and posted the matter for hearing next on July 27.

Zubair, who recently flagged controversial comments on Prophet Mohammed by suspended Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) spokesperson Nupur Sharma, was arrested by the Delhi Police on Monday over the tweet they said was objectionable. He was produced before a duty magistrate later that night and was sent to one-day police custody initially.

The journalist has been booked for offences under sections 153A (promoting enmity between religious groups) and 295 (injuring or defiling place of worship, with intent to insult the religion of any class) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).