Supreme Court grants bail to Mohammed Zubair in Sitapur case

Highlights

• The Supreme Court on Friday granted bail to Alt News journalist Mohammed Zubair for five days provided he stays within the jurisdiction of the court and does not tweet in the near future.

• While Zubair has been granted bail in the case registered in Sitapur where he called three Hindu right-wing leaders “hatemongers”, the journalist will remain in jail as he has not received bail for the case in Delhi.

• The bail is an interim order as the Supreme Court will next hear the matter after five days. The bail conditions are that he cannot post any tweets and can’t leave Delhi.

• The verdict was given by a bench of Justice Indira Banerjee and JK Mahewari while hearing the journalist’s plea against an FIR filed by the Uttar Pradesh police over a tweet in which Zubair referred to three Hindutva leaders as hate mongers.

• Zubair has been accused of hate speech for referring to Hindutva leaders Bajrang Muni, Yati Narsinghanand and Anand Swaroop, as “hate-mongers.”

• Further, the journalist has been booked under sections 120B (criminal conspiracy) and 201 (destruction of evidence) of the Indian Penal Code(IPC) and section 35 of the Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act.