SC to hear Zubair plea on quashing FIR today

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court will hear the bail plea of Alt News co-founder Mohammed Zubair in connection with a case registered against him in Uttar Pradesh for allegedly outraging religious feelings on Friday. A vacation bench of Justices Indira Banerjee and JK Maheshwari said on Thursday the matter be listed on Friday subject to clearance from the Chief Justice of India.

Senior advocate Colin Gonsalves, appearing for Zubair, said his anticipatory bail was rejected by the Allahabad High Court and subsequently he was arrested. “There is a threat to his life as people out there are threatening him,” he said while urging the court to list the matter urgently.

An FIR was lodged against Zubair in Sitapur district of UP under IPC section 295A (deliberate and malicious act intended to outrage religious feelings) and section 67 of the IT Act on a complaint by Hindu Sher Sena Sitapur district president Bhagwan Sharan on June 1.

Zubair challenged the Allahabad HC’s refusal to quash an FIR registered against him for a tweet in which he allegedly called three Hindu religious leaders —Yati Narasinghanand Saraswati, Bajrang Muni and Anand Swaroop — ‘hate mongers’.

Zubair’s petition said it was a “new police strategy for registering FIRs in hate crime cases against the criminals as well as those monitoring and protesting hate crimes... This is done with the intention of stifling freedom of speech...”.