‘Truth can’t be defeated, justice will prevail’: Zubair on POCSO case closure
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The Chhattisgarh police has filed a closure report in the POCSO case against Alt News co-founder and journalist Mohammed Zubair, and the state government recently informed the Chhattisgarh High Court, which has now disposed of his plea challenging the FIR.
The case, which had been registered in 2020 after Zubair responded to online abuse by a user named Jagdish Singh, had been criticised as an instance of the misuse of the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights’ (NCPCR) official position.
Zubair had posted on X (formerly Twitter), questioning whether it was appropriate for Singh to hurl abuse from an account featuring his granddaughter’s photo, and although the minor’s face was blurred, Singh approached the NCPCR, which in turn alerted the police in Delhi and Raipur.
The FIR booked Zubair under Section 67 of the Information Technology Act for publishing obscene material, Section 509B of the Indian Penal Code for sexual harassment by electronic mode, and Section 12 of the POCSO Act for alleged harassment of a minor, but the court had earlier ordered that no coercive action be taken against him.
In its latest submission, the state counsel informed the bench, comprising Chief Justice Ramesh Sinha and Justice Arvind Kumar Verma, that the case had been closed, and the court subsequently disposed of Zubair’s plea against the FIR.
Zubair welcomed the move on X, stating that this brought the number of quashed FIRs against him to two out of ten, and said that truth may be troubled but not defeated, while reiterating that justice had prevailed.
“In this case, [former head of the NCPCR Priyank Kanoongo] misused their official position and ran a propaganda against me by writing to Delhi and Raipur police alleging that my tweet amounted to torture and harassment of a minor girl. But last year, The Delhi Court had asked the person who filed a case against me to [publicly apologise] to me instead. And Now Chattisgarh police filed a closure report and cleared my name,” Zubair posted on X on April
“Truth can be troubled, but not defeated. Justice prevails!” he wrote.
He also alleged that former NCPCR head Priyank Kanoongo had misused his official position by initiating police action and publicly alleging that the tweet amounted to torture and harassment of a minor, though the Delhi court later asked the complainant to apologise publicly.
This is not the first time Kanoongo’s actions have drawn criticism, as he had earlier targeted Harsh Mander and organisations associated with him and had been rebuked by the Delhi Commission for Protection of Child Rights in July 2021 for his conduct.
Zubair, who has continued to fact-check communal and misleading narratives from Hindutva circles and BJP supporters, remains the subject of multiple FIRs, including one filed by the Uttar Pradesh police over his posts concerning hate speech proponent Yati Narsinghanand.