Supreme court grants bail to Mohammed Zubair in all six FIRs, disbands SIT

New Delhi: The Supreme Court has granted interim bail to fact-checking website Alt News co-founder Mohammad Zubair in all the six FIRs registered against him in Uttar Pradesh and ordered his immediate release.

The apex court also clubbed all the FIRs registered against Zubair and transferred all of them —  lodged in Uttar Pradesh — to Delhi Police Special Cell. It has also disbanded the SIT set up by the Uttar Pradesh government to probe his tweets.

The court said Zubair will be released on interim bail by presenting bail bond of Rs 20,000 before the magistrate court at Patiala house. Immediately on presentation of bail bond, the Superintendent of Tihar Jail will release Zubair.

Supreme Court Bench’s, headed by Justice DY Chandrachud, order was in response to a petition filed by the Alt News co-founder seeking to quash the FIRs registered against him by the Uttar Pradesh Police on Wednesday. The plea also challenged the constitution of the SIT by the Uttar Pradesh government to probe the six cases.

The Uttar Pradesh government’s request to have Zubair refrain from tweeting was also denied by the Supreme Court. “It’s like asking a lawyer not to argue… A person not to speak. Whatever he does, he will be responsible in law but we can’t ask a journalist not to write,” the SC said, reports the Mint.

On 18 July, the apex court had directed the Uttar Pradesh Police to not take any ‘precipitative action’ against fact Zubair in connection with the FIRs registered against him in Lakhimpur Kheri, Muzaffarnagar, Ghaziabad and two at Hathras districts over his tweets till 20 July.

On 8 July, a vacation bench of the top court had granted five-day interim bail to Zubair in the case lodged at Sitapur in Uttar Pradesh and subsequently, on 12 July it was extended till further orders. It had barred Zubair from posting anything on Twitter and said he shall not tamper with any evidence, electronic or otherwise.

It had also clarified that its interim bail order is concerning the FIR lodged in Sitapur and has nothing to do with a separate case registered against the journalist in Delhi.

Delhi Police arrested Zubair on 27 June in a case related to an objectionable tweet he had posted in 2018 against a Hindu deity. He was accused of hurting ‘religious sentiments’.

With input from agencies

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