Allahabad: The Allahabad High Court on Thursday (January 16) extended the stay on arrest of Alt News co-founder Mohammed Zubair till January 27 in a case registered against him by the Ghaziabad Police for allegedly promoting enmity among religious groups on a complaint by an associate of Yati Narsinghanand over his post on social media platform X (formerly Twitter).
The FIR against Zubair was registered on a complaint lodged by Udita Tyagi, general secretary of Yati Narsinghanand Saraswati Trust, alleging that he shared old video clip of Narsinghanand with the intent to incite violence against him.
Zubair had posted on social media platform X calling Narsinghanand’s speech – in which he allegedly made remarks against Prophet Muhammad – “derogatory and hateful”.
High Court earlier granted Zubair 10 days to file a rejoinder
A bench comprising Justice Siddhartha Verma and Justice Yogendra Kumar Srivastava, while extending the stay on Zubair’s arrest, allowed the Uttar Pradesh government to verify the averments and documents submitted along with a rejoinder by Zubair’s lawyer, Livelaw reported.
The High Court had earlier on January 6 granted Zubair 10 days to file a rejoinder to the counter filed by the Uttar Pradesh government.
High Court on December 20 last year stayed Zubair’s arrest
The High Court had earlier on December 20 last year stayed Zubair’s arrest while hearing a plea moved by him seeking to quash the First Information Report (FIR) registered against him by the Ghaziabad police and protection from arrest, claiming that he had written on social media X to highlight repeated communal remarks and derogatory comments made by Yati Narsinghanand.
Ghaziabad police lodged an FIR under various sections of BNS
The First Information Report (FIR) was registered by the Ghaziabad police under various sections of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), including sections 196 (promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion), 228 (fabricating false evidence), 299 (deliberate and malicious acts intended to outrage religious feelings) and 356(3) (defamation). The High Court was earlier informed by the police that the section 152 of the BNS for the offence of endangering the sovereignty, unity and integrity of India has been included in the FIR registered against Zubair.
What has Zubair argued?
Zubair has argued that the case lodged against him by the Ghaziabad police is a malicious attempt to prevent him from exposing criminal activities of Narsinghanand. He has also challenged the invocation of the defamation provision under the BNS, arguing that seeking action against Narsinghanand by sharing his own videos which are already in public domain, cannot amount to defamation.
