Prayagraj: The Allahabad High Court on Thursday (May 22) refused to quash a First Information Report (FIR) registered against Alt News co-founder Mohammed Zubair 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).
A bench comprising Justice Siddhartha Varma and Justice Dr YK Srivastava, however, said Zubair may not be arrested during investigation.
High Court earlier protected Zubair from arrest
The High Court earlier protected Zubair, who moved the high court seeking quashing of the FIR and protection from coercive action from arrest in the case.
The High Court on Thursday directed that the investigation will proceed in pursuance of the FIR, news agency PTI reported.
The FIR against Zubair was registered on a complaint registered by an associate of controversial priest Yati Narsinghanand – Udita Tyagi, general secretary of Yati Narsinghanand Saraswati Trust – alleging that Zubair shared old video clip of Narsinghanand with the intent to incite violence against him.
Zubair called Narsinghanand’s speech in which he allegedly made remarks against Prophet Muhammad “derogatory and hateful” on social media platform X.
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).
What did Zubair argue?
Zubair has said that the case registered against him by the Ghaziabad police is a malicious attempt to prevent him from exposing criminal activities of Narsinghanand. He also challenged in his plea 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.
