New Delhi: The Delhi High Court was informed by the Delhi Police Special Cell that AltNews co-founder Mohammed Zubair had deliberately made on Twitter "highly provocative" post with pictures and words targeting a particular religious community
Adding that the post was enough to "incite religious feeling of hatred" among people, the special Cell, which was directed to file a status report by the court, said that the post was "detrimental for maintenance of public tranquility in the society", according to The Indian Express.
The Special Cell claimed to have found during the investigation that the post was made from Zubair's verified handle.
The report by the Special Cell also said: "That, on 27.06.2022, Mohammed Zubair joined investigation of above case and admitted that he had posted the above mentioned post related to Hanuman-Honeymoon hotel. But despite detailed interrogation, Mohd. Zubair tried to mislead investigation and provided different answers to same question on repeated queries. Finally, Mohd. Zubair disclosed that the laptop and mobile phone used by him for posting the above content is at his residence in Bangalore and he can get the same recovered."
Zubair—arrested on June 27 as part of recovering equipment used in crime and interrogating, according to the police—admitted to have asked his family to dispose of his mobile phone and laptop in the event of his being arrested or apprehended by the police, according to the Special Cell.
Police claimed Zubair to have disclosed that he is the co-founder of AltNews and posted content that "triggers religious sentiment and he remains trending in news/ social media".
The Chief Metropolitan Magistrate (CMM), Patiala House Court on June 28 granted the Special Cell four-day police custody of Zuabair and afterwards he was taken into custody. Subsequently CMM remanded him to 14-day judicial custody on July 2.
The Patiala House Court granted him regular bail on July 15. The Supreme Court on June 20 disbanded the special investigation team set up by Uttar Pradesh government, granting him bail in six cases against him.
The court also transferred the pending cases against him to Delhi.