UP court dismisses Mohammed Zubair’s bail petition in Lakhimpur Kheri case
An Uttar Pradesh court on Saturday rejected the bail petition of Alt News co-founder Mohammed Zubair in connection with an FIR lodged against him in Lakhimpur Kheri for allegedly promoting enmity through a Twitter post in 2021.
The bail plea was moved before additional chief judicial magistrate, Mohamaddi, on July 11 after a court sent the journalist to a 14-day judicial custody.
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“Considering arguments of the prosecution regarding the gravity of the offence and pending investigations, additional chief judicial magistrate (ACJM), Mohammadi, Ruchi Srivastava rejected Mohammed Zubair’s bail plea,” senior prosecution officer (SPO) S P Yadav told HT.
A hearing on Zubair’s police remand is scheduled to be held on July 20.
On September 18, 2021, Zubair was booked under section 153A of Indian Penal Code, at Mohammadi police station of Lakhimpur Kheri, for allegedly misrepresenting a news story through a tweet.
The FIR against the journalist was filed on the basis of a complaint by Ashish Katiyar, a resident of Mohammadi town and a journalist with a private news organisation.
Zubair is facing a combined total of seven cases in Delhi (1) and Uttar Pradesh’s Sitapur (1), Ghaziabad (1), Muzaffarnagar (1), Lakhimpur Kheri (1) and Hathras (1).
He has, however, been granted bail in the Delhi case and interim bail till September 7 in the Sitapur case. He is currently lodged in Delhi’s Tihar jail.
Zubair’s counsel Yagya Dutt Gautam said Hathras Police sought the journalist’s police custody remand in a case registered there on July 4 over his alleged remarks on Hindu gods and goddesses in a 2018 tweet.
The case was registered under sections 153A (promoting enmity between different groups on ground of religion, race, etc.), 295A (deliberate and malicious acts, intended to outrage religious feelings of any class) and 298 (uttering words etc with deliberate intent to wound the religious feelings of any person) of Indian Penal Code and section 67 (publishing or transmitting obscene material in electronic form) of Information Technology Act.
A district court had remanded the journalist in 14-day judicial custody on Thursday in the case.
“Hathras police moved an application on July 15, seeking 14-day police custody remand (PCR) of Mohammed Zubair, so as to recover the mobile and laptop used by him allegedly in transmitting objectionable material related to Hindu gods and goddesses,” Gautam said.
“The court of chief judicial magistrate (Hathras) has fixed July 18 for disposal of the application,” Gautam added.
Zubair’s counsel is expected to file the objections to the police application on Monday.
“The application moved by Hathras police is totally unfounded as the matter is four years old and as such, we will file the objections against the PCR…,” Umang Rawat, who is also representing Zubair in the case, said.
In their application before a district court, Hathras police have stressed the need for Zubair’s PCR for “sustainable police interrogation”, according to Zubair’s lawyers.
Zubair had approached the Supreme Court on Thursday with a plea for quashing the six FIRs registered against him in Uttar Pradesh, claiming he is being targeted by a network of influential persons who are weaponising the criminal law machinery to deprive him of his liberty.
The journalist also complained against the constitution of a two-member special investigation team (SIT) formed by the UP government on Tuesday to look into the six cases filed against him in the state.
