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Fact checking website Alt News's co-founder Mohammad Zubair was arrested by Delhi Police on Monday evening under sections 153/295 IPC. The national capital's police said that complain was filed against Zubair for hurting religious sentiments.
In the latest update of the incident, Co-founder Pratik Sinha has informed that Zubair is being taken to an ‘undisclosed location’ by police person who are not wearing any name tags.
“After the medical examination, Zubair is being taken to an undisclosed location. Neither Zubair’s lawyers or I are being told where. We are in the police van with him. No police person is wearing any name tag." he informed.
Zubair had been summoned in a 2020 POSCO case after which he was arrested for a different case by the Intelligence Fusion & Strategic Operations (IFSO) division of the Delhi Police.
"A picture (in tweet) shown where signboard of hotel ‘हनीमून होटल ’ changed to ‘हनुमान होटल ’. Hanuman Bhakt @ balajikijaiin tweeted, 'Linking our God Haunman ji with honeymoon is a direct insult of Hindus because he is brahmchari. Kindly take action against this guy', said Delhi Police to news agency ANI.
A senior official of the Delhi Police said "Present case registered on basis of a post on Twitter by handle Hanuman Bhakt @ balajikijaiin where he showed his anger against another Twitter handle in name of Mohammed Zubair regarding the post “BEFORE 2014: Honeymoon Hotel. After 2014: Hanuman Hotel"
Meanwhile, Congress MP Shashi Tharoor took to twitter to say that arresting Zubair was an act assaulting the truth and asked that he be released immediately.
“India’s few fact-checking services, especially @AltNews , perform a vital service in our post-truth political environment, rife with disinformation. They debunk falsehoods whoever perpetrates them. To arrest @zoo_bear is an assault on truth. He should be released immediately", Tharoor wrote on twitter
A senior officer of the Delhi Police said Zubair is being produced before the magistrate for seeking further police remand for the purpose of the investigation of the case.
However, Pratik Sinha, co-founder of Alt News, shared a tweet, Zubair was called by the special cell, Delhi, for investigation in a 2020 case for which he already had a protection from the high court. “However, around 6.45pm, we were told he has been arrested in some other FIR for which no notice was given which mandatory under law for the Sections under which he has been arrested," he said.
Sinha has also informed that no copy of the FIR was produced to them by the Delhi police despite repeated request.
Delhi police officials have further alleged that Zubair was evasive on the questions and neither provided the necessary technical equipment for the purpose of the investigation nor cooperated in the investigation.
The senior official has further reiterated, “During investigation, conduct of Mohammad Zubair was found questionable, which warranted his custodial interrogation to unravel conspiracy in this matter. Accordingly, he has been arrested & is being produced before court for seeking police custody remand".
The Alt News co-founder has been under attack from Hindu nationals for his tweets and other work. earlier he had also called out the hate speech by Yati Narsinghanand, Mahant Bajrang Muni and Anand Swaroop.
Zubair has also written a book titled “India Misinformed: The True Story" which was published by Harper Collins in the year 2019.