Police to probe into Rs 50 lakh found in Zubair's account, his lawyer says not dubious

New Delhi: The Cyber Crime Unit of the Delhi Police said that they are planning to probe into the laptop and bank transactions of AltNews co-founder Mohammed Zubair for further evidence following the arrest.

Earlier, on Monday, Zubair was called to the Dwarka office of the unit in connection with the 2020 POSCO case, for which the High Court had already granted him protection from arrest. However, another notice for probe on his 2018 tweet was submitted to the journalist, leading to his arrest.

"We have found transactions over Rs 50 lakh in Zubair's account. These were made in the last three months. We don't know the source yet, but they could be donations from questionable organizations. We are looking into this," said DCP (Cyber Crime) KPS Malhotra while validating the reasons for the arrest.

The allegations were denied by Pratik Sinha, the AltNews co-founder. According to him, all the money received by the company goes to its bank account and not any individuals. The police are trying to link donations received by AltNews to Zubair, Mr. Sinha said.

Zubair's counsel also said that the organization is receiving money through open-source crowdfunding. Hence, all the allegations made by the police are false, the counsel said.

According to the police, the journalist was unwilling to cooperate with the probe on Monday. His tweet was creating disharmony and unrest in the country.

At the same time, Zubair's counsel alleged that the police were unwilling to consider the journalist's request to take care of his father-in-law as he was unwell. He was pushed to arrive in Delhi, stating the urgency of the POSCO case. Although the FIR for the tweet was lodged on 20 June, no notice was sent by the police before questioning the journalist, added the counsel.