AltNews journalist Zubair challenges detention in Delhi High Court

NEW DELHI: Journalist and news fact-checker Mohammed Zubair, who has been detained by the police in a case involving a Twitter post on a Hindu god from 2018, challenged his police remand on Thursday. The co-founder of news platform AltNews on Thursday moved the Delhi High Court challenging the Patiala House Court’s decision ordering for his detention. 

The plea will be heard on Friday. The petition was filed before a Vacation Bench of the High Court by senior advocate Vrinda Grover who has raised a case that challenges detention order.  Justice Sanjeev Narula consented to hear Zubair’s petition on Friday after hearing about the plea from his counsel.

On June 27, Zubair was detained by the Delhi Police, and the trial court ordered him to spend the next day in police prison. In order to retrieve his computer equipment as part of the inquiry into the case in which he was detained on Monday due to a 2018 tweet, the Delhi police flew journalist Mohammed Zubair to Bengaluru on Thursday.

Pratik Sinha, another co-founder of AltNews informed on Twitter and wrote, “Zubair tweeted a joke in 2018 which was based on a 1983 movie from a phone which was snatched from him in 2021, for which he’s produced a police complaint copy. Yet, Delhi police went all the way to Bangalore to get his laptop, a device that has nothing to do with the tweet.”

In the meantime, the Twitter account @Balajikijaiin that reported Zubair’s tweet to Delhi Police has been deactivated.