Indian journalist Mohammed Zubair held for posts 'that insult religious feeling': Police

Mohammed Zubair, the co-founder of Alt News, was detained by Delhi Police on Monday on suspicion of inciting hatred and denigrating religion.

According to Delhi Police, Zubair was charged with violating Indian Penal Code (IPC) sections 153A (promotion of animosity between different groups on the basis of religion, race, place of birth, residence, and language) and 295A (Deliberate and malicious acts, intended to outrage religious feelings of any class by insulting its religion or religious beliefs).

Police said that a complaint was made against the co-founder due to a tweet made by Zubair via Twitter.

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

Pratik Sinha, co-founder of Alt News, commented on his colleague's arrest and wrote on Twitter, "Zubair was called today by special cell, Delhi for investigation in a case for which he already had a protection against arrest from High Court."

The Delhi Police, officials said on Tuesday that his "objectionable tweet of 2018 led to a Twitter storm with hate speeches, detrimental to communal harmony".

"In such cases, finding the gadget used to post such tweets and the intention behind posting such a tweet is important. During questioning, he has been evasive on both the fronts. We found out that his phone was formatted. His evasiveness formed the grounds for his arrest," said KPS Malhotra, Deputy Commissioner of Police (Intelligence Fusion & Strategic Operations).

According to the police, the case was opened following a Twitter user's accusation that Zubair had offended religious sensitivities.

On Monday, Sinha claimed that Zubair had been detained under portions of the law that required notification from the police before his detention, but that notice had not been given.

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