Delhi HC sends notice to Delhi Police on Mohammad Zubair’s plea against police remand, seeks reply in 14 days
The Delhi High Court on Friday issued a notice to the Delhi Police seeking its response on a petition by Alt News co-founder Mohammad Zubair. In his petition, Zubair had challenged the validity of his police remand in a case related to an alleged objectionable tweet posted against a Hindu deity in 2018.
Justice Sanjeev Narula issued notice to the Delhi Police on the petition and gave two weeks time to the investigating agency to file its reply on that petition. Zubair challenges the June 28 order of the Patiala House Court ordering the police to grant him four days’ custody.
Zubair was arrested by the Delhi Police on June 27 for hurting religious sentiments through one of his tweets and was sent to one-day police custody by the trial court on the same day.
Zubair’s custody was extended by another four days by Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Snigdha Sarwaria after he was produced at the end of his one-day custody.
According to the order of the trial court, Zubair will be produced before it on July 2 after the end of his four-day police remand.
Earlier this month, sections 153A (promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion, caste, place of birth, language, etc.) and 295A (hurting religious feelings) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) against Zubair. Intentional and malicious act with intent to commit) was registered under
Police said the case was registered on the complaint of a Twitter user who accused Zubair of hurting religious sentiments. The next hearing of the matter will be on July 27.
Laptop, hard disk recovered from Zubair’s Bengaluru residence
A four-member team of Delhi Police seized a laptop and hard disk from Zubair’s Bengaluru home on Thursday. A senior police official had said that the Delhi Police team reached Zubair’s house in RT Nagar area of Bengaluru at around 11:30 am and collected electronic evidence including his laptop and hard disk. He said Zubair has been brought back to Delhi where he will be further interrogated in the case. On Wednesday, the police had written to several banks seeking information about Zubair’s account and other financial transactions.
The official also said that the mobile phone used by Zubair has been formatted and the information related to the case is not there. According to the police, Zubair said that he had lost the phone which was allegedly used to post the objectionable tweet.
