FIR against arrested fact-checker Mohammed Zubair 'sensitive' in nature, says cop who filed complaint

New Delhi: Delhi police on Tuesday said that the FIR against Mohammed Zubair, the co-founder of fact-checking website AltNews who was arrested by the cyber unit of the Delhi Police on Monday, was registered a week ago.

The FIR was lodged on a complaint by Delhi Police Sub-Inspector Arun Kumar who works with the Intelligence Fusion & Strategic Operations Cell (IFSO) which functions under the Special Cell and handles cases of cybercrime and cyber forensics.

The policeman has said he was monitoring social media when he came across a tweet from a handle named 'Hanuman Bhakt', objecting to Mr Zubair's tweet.

In the tweet, Mr Zubair shared a clip from legendary filmmaker Hrishikesh Mukherjee's 1983 classic Kissi Se Na Kehna.

The image shows a hotel board that reads "Hanuman Hotel" in Hindi. Paint marks suggest that it was earlier called 'Honeymoon Hotel' and the "Honeymoon" was changed to "Hanuman". Mr Zubair wrote in the tweet, "Before 2014: Honeymoon Hotel, After 2014: Hanuman Hotel".

The FIR was registered on June 20 under Sections 153-A (promoting enmity between different groups) and 295-A (malicious acts, intended to outrage religious feelings) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) after a complaint from Kumar.

"Transmission and publication of such posts has been deliberately done by Mohammed Zubair@zoo_bear through electronic media to insult the religious feelings of a particular community with the intent to provoke breach of peace...," the FIR states.

The tweet by Mr Zubair was "highly provocative and more than sufficient to incite feeling of hatred" among people, the Delhi Police First Information Report (FIR) says.

Kumar also asked that the investigation of the case be marked to him and that the FIR not be uploaded on their website since it was "sensitive" in nature.

According to the police, he has been remanded in police custody for a day and will be produced in court for a bail hearing after Tuesday.