The Delhi Police has added new charges of criminal conspiracy and destruction of evidence against Mohammed Zubair, co-founder of Alt News. Earlier, the Delhi Police arrested Zubair because of his tweets in 2018. On Saturday, the cops presented the fact-checker at the Patiala House Court and sought custody for 14-days.
The new charges joined the list besides Section 35 of the FCRA (Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act). However, as criminal conspiracy adds to the Sections of IPC, the ED (Enforcement Directorate) can also jump on the probe.
Meanwhile, the lawyer of Alt News Journalist has moved a bail application before the court. The Delhi police arrested Mohammed Zubair on June 27 for hurting religious sentiments through one of his tweets. On the same day, the police took him into one-day custody.
Days after Mohammed Zubair flagged a video of Nupur Sharma making remarks on Prophet Mohammed on a TV show, Delhi Police arrested him. However, the Delhi cops apprehended him for his tweets.
An unidentified Twitter handle @balajikijaiin by the name of Hanuman Bhakt that put Mohammed Zubair behind bars does not exist on the social networking service.
In 2018, Zubair tweeted an image of a hotel signboard repainted from Honeymoon Hotel to Hanuman Hotel. The handle retweeted his four-year-old tweet. Further, it claimed that the tweet hurt the sentiments of the Hindu community by insulting their deity.
According to the speculations, Delhi Police might send a team to Zubair’s Bengaluru house. Meanwhile, his colleagues have denied the claims of ₹50 Lakhs in Zubair’s bank account. Pratik Sinha also alleged in a tweet that the police arrested Zubair from his house without any notice.
