New Delhi: Days after arresting Mohammed Zubair, the co-founder of the fact-checking website AltNews, the police sought its donation details from fintech company Razorpay, leading to temporarily disabling AltNews' account there.
Delhi Police, according to the Indian Express, said they had only asked the fintech company to furnish details of accounts and transactions but the firm disabled the payment process themselves.
Zubair was arrested on Monday on charges of hurting religious sentiments on social media over a tweet in 2018.
He was sent to 14-day judicial custody alongside his bail plea got rejected after police claimed they were investigating violations of the Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act (FCRA).
Meanwhile, AltNews said Razorpay had handed in donor data to the police; and the fact-checking website on Monday stated the donation link was not working after it was deactivated by Razorpay.
Subsequently another statement by the website said the account was reactivated after clarity on the issue, after it was frozen as a safety precaution during the preliminary probe by law enforcement, according to the report.
The Indian Express reported senior police officials as claiming they did not seek to deactivate the fact-checking website's account but asked Razorpay to share At News's transaction and account details.
Police reportedly said Razorpay offered them to freeze the account which they declined as the investigation was about donations from foreign accounts.
AltNews further stated that allegations against the website of having received funds from whom it cannot receive were false. The statement alleged that Razorpay handed in donor data to police without informing Alt News.