Mohammed Zubair, Alt news co- founder was arrested for hurting the religious sentiments of the Hindu community on Monday, June 27 after an anonymous twitter user brought the matter on surface through his tweet in which he pointed out how Zubair was deliberately linking Honeymoon with brahmachari Lord Hanuman from an old movie clip while tagging Dilhi police.
Mohammed Zubair was booked under the Indian Penal Code (IPC) Sections 153 (provocation to cause riot) and 295A (Deliberate and malicious acts intended to outrage religious feelings).
In his objectionable tweet, Zubair claimed that a hotel named ‘Honeymoon’ was changed to ‘Hanuman’ in 2014 to keep up with Indian values (sanskaar).
While speaking to ANI, the Delhi police informed, “The said post of Mohd. Zubair containing picture & words against a particular religious community are highly provocative & done deliberately which are more than sufficient to incite hatred among people which can be detrimental for maintenance of public tranquillity.”
It is also to be reminded that this is the same Zubair and Alt news who had unleashed his troll army on ex-BJP spokesperson Nupur Sharma by sharing partial clip of hers with comments on Prophet Muhammad. Subsequently, Islamists got triggered and calls for her beheading were made. Violence erupted in India for days, especially after Jumma Namaz, by Islamist mob and even terror organisations like Al Qaeda issued terror attack threats on India.
The Delhi police found Zubair to be non-cooperative and evasive during interrogation, following which they sought his custody.
As such, the police sought 4-day remand before the Magistrate. However, Alt News co-founder Pratik Sinha had claimed that the police sought 7-day remand. Mohammed Zubair was taken to Burari from Dwarka.
“The court has allowed accused Mohammed Zubair’s counsel’s plea to meet him once a day for half an hour in police custody for providing legal assistance,” informed the Delhi police.
Earlier, netizens on Twitter had dredged up old tweets of Zubair after a social media user pointed out to how the so called ‘fact-checker,’ who instigated the blasphemy threats against Nupur Sharma, had a history of making derogatory posts over Hinduism and Hindu Gods.
After being exposed for his posts which hurt religious sentiments of Hindus, Zubair quickly pulled down his Facebook account, However, social media users pointed out how Zubair had been a serial offender, and his offences were not restricted to Facebook alone but extend well into the Twitter realm.
Social media users dug up old tweets from the AltNews co-founder, where he made uncharitable comments on Hindu beliefs and made Hindu Gods the object of his ridicule, and had demanded his arrest.