NEW DELHI, July 20: The Supreme Court on Wednesday finally granted interim bail to Alt News co-founder Mohammad Zubair in all the six cases filed against him in Uttar Pradesh and also extended the protection to apply against any future FIRs registered against him.
A Bench comprising Justices DY Chandrachud, Surya Kant and AS Bopanna said in an order dictated in open court transferred the current FIRs registered against him in Uttar Pradesh to Delhi Police Special Cell. Though the court has not quashed the FIRs, it has given Zubair the liberty to approach the Delhi High Court to seek the quashing of all the cases against him.
In its order, the apex court stated that there was no justification in keeping Zubair in continued custody.
“Having regard to the fact that the petitioner has been subjected to comprehensive investigation by the Delhi police, we find no reason for his deprivation of personal liberty to sustain,” the order stated.
On Monday, the Bench had said the “vicious cycle” of cases filed against Zubair for his tweets seem to have “similar content” and ordered the State to not take any precipitate action against him without the apex court’s permission.
The Bench also refused Uttar Pradesh’s plea to disallow Zubair tweeting when he was on bail claiming “it may provoke further incident.” “How can we tell a journalist not to write. How can we tell he will not utter a word. If he does something, he is answerable in law. We cannot stop a citizen from using his voice. We will not say anything like that,” Justice Chandrachud said.
Of the six cases the UP police was investigating, five are for his Twitter posts — where he either reported hate crime against Muslims, fact-checked television reports and other false information online, or called out television channels for hosting communal debates.
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 charge-sheet has already been filed, has also been transferred for trial before the Chief Judicial Magistrate in Delhi’s Patiala House Court. The case in Chandauli is filed against Zubair by an employee of Sudarshan News for allegedly spreading misinformation about the news outlet.
“Consequently, the Special Investigation Team constituted by the Director General of Police, Uttar Pradesh shall be rendered redundant and shall be disbanded,” the Court said.
Senior advocate and Additional Advocate General of UP Garima Prashad had argued before the Court that Zubair “is promoting malicious and provocative content” under the guise of fact checking. “He gets paid for the tweets. More malicious the tweets, more payment he gets. He has admitted. He has got over Rs 2 crores. He is no journalist,” she said.
Prashad referred to an incident on June 7 in Ghaziabad’s Loni where a video of an assault on a 72-year-old Muslim man was shared by Zubair and tensions flared up after the tweet was published. “His lakhs of followers retweeted it and entire incident was blown up and communal disharmony takes place in the same district. On June 22, he gave a written apology saying that without checking facts he had gone ahead,” Prashad argued.
“Here is a person who instead of informing the police of illegal speech or hatred, he has been taking advantage of speeches and videos which have the potential of creating a communal divide and he has been sharing them repeatedly,” she added.
However, Justice Chandrachud asked Prashad “where would the balance of justice really lie” when the same tweets were being investigated by the Delhi Police and Zubair was granted regular bail by the Patiala House Court on July 15.
Apart from charges of hate speech, the Special Cell of the Delhi Police is also investigating Zubair under the Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act (FCRA), 2010.
(Manas Dasgupta)