Mohammad Zubair denied bail, sent to 14 days judicial custody
Premium- Zubair was produced before the court after his 4-day police remand came to an end today. The Delhi Police had sought his judicial custody.
The Chief Metropolitan Magistrate (CMM) of Patiala House Court of Delhi on Saturday rejected the bail plea of Alt News Co-founder and journalist Mohammad Zubair.
The journalist was also sent to judicial custody by the Patiala House court
The Delhi police on the police on Saturday said that Pravda Media, the parent company of Alt News of which Zubair is the co-founder, received funds amounting to ₹2,31,933 from foreign countries.
Zubair was produced before the court after his 4-day police remand came to an end today. The Delhi Police had sought his judicial custody.
Earlier on Saturday, the new of Zubair's bail plea getting rejected had been provided to the media houses at a time when the Judges of the court had gone for lunch, according to Zubair's Lawyer Soutik Bannerjee.
Banerjee said to news agency ANI, “The judge hasn't come after lunch yet. Shocked to see that DCP KPS Malhotra has leaked in media that our bail plea has been rejected and 14-day judicial custody granted".
Further, the Delhi Police DCP KPS Malhotra also issued a clarification saying he informed media incorrectly that AltNews' Mohammed Zubair has been sent to 14-day judicial custody.
Zubair was arrested on 27 June, following a complaint raised by a Twitter user- Hanuman Bhakt who said that a tweet posted by Zubair in 2018 of a movie poster that was released in 1983 had hurt religious sentiments of the followers of a Hindu deity.
Presenting the argument in the court, Advocate Vrinda Grover, representing Mohammad Zubair, said, "The mentioned tweet belonged to film 'Kissi Se Na Kehna' by Hrishikesh Mukherjee, it's a lovely comedy and was allowed by censor board...They say the tweet is provocative & sensitive, but still no direction from Twitter to remove it."
The lawyer argued that formatting the phone is not illegal.
"I was not aware of the FIR and phone was not summoned... It's not illegal to format my phone. It is not arms & ammunition, or a drug... It's not illegal to format my phone... I take serious legal & constitutional objections," Grover said.
Meanwhile, Atul Shrivastava, representing Delhi Police sought the dismissal of the bail plea stating that there are donations from countries like Pakistan and Syria and therefore the case is "not just of a simple tweet".
Delhi Police had sought judicial custody of Alt News co-founder Mohammed Zubair after his 4-day remand ended on Saturday in a case related to an alleged objectionable tweet.
The police have also alleged conspiracy and destruction of evidence in the case by the accused and the relevant sections of the same were added in the FIR.