The Delhi High Court on Wednesday granted protection to journalist and co-founder of fact-checking website ALTNews, Mohammed Zubair, against any coercive action from the police in connection with an FIR registered with Delhi Police Cyber Cell.
Justice Yogesh Khanna also issued notice to Delhi police on Mr. Zubair’s plea seeking to quash the FIR registered against him in Delhi. It also sought response of National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR), on whose complaint the case was registered.
Mr Zubair, in his petition, claimed that the FIR centred around a tweet he shared on August 6, 2020 where he called out one Jagdish Singh, who he alleged is a “habitual troll” for being an abusive person on social media.
Senior advocate Colin Gonsalves, appearing for Mr. Zubair, submitted that his client has not been supplied copy of the FIR registered against him in Delhi. “The copy of the FIR was never supplied to the petitioner even after repeated calls were made to DCP Anyesh Roy, Special Cyber Cell, Delhi (Respondent No. 4) requesting for the same,” his petition said.
Mr. Gonsaalves said that another FIR on the same issue was registered on September 4 in Raipur, Chhattisgarh. The senior advocate said that multiple FIRs cannot be lodged for the same facts and incident, more so at different places.
Mr. Zubair said he is in the process of challenging the FIR registered in Chhattisgarh separately, but fears that he may be arrested by Delhi Police immediately.
Defending his tweet, which is at the centre of the controversy, Mr Zubair said he “merely shared an image of Jagdish Singh standing with a minor girl whose face was pixelated and calling Jagdish Singh out on his foul, shameful and abusive behaviour on social media”.
He said that the present “frivolous case is instituted at the behest of the powerful people of the ruling party with a view to give vent to their anger against the petitioner, for exposing fake news and communal propaganda”.
Justice Khanna said it would be appropriate for Delhi Police to hand over copy of the FIR to Mr. Zubair so that he can respond to the allegations. The high court further said the plea of Priyank Kanoongo, Chairperson, NCPCR, to be removed as a party from the current proceeding will be considered at a later stage.
Mr Kanoongo’s counsel argued that he was only acting as an informant and doing his statutory duty. However, Mr Golsalves said Mr Kanoongo was made a party as he had tweeted about the matter from his personal handle and not the commission’s handle.
On August 8, Mr Kanoongo from his personal Twitter handle had tweeted, “The Commission has taken cognizance of the case of threatening and torturing a girl child through Twitter. necessary communication have been issued to @TwitterIndia and concerned law enforcement authorities for appropriate action”.