Mohammed Zubair was arrested by the Delhi Police on Monday.
Fact-checker Mohammed Zubair was arrested by the Delhi Police on Monday after an anonymous Twitter user flagged one of his tweets. The anonymous Twitter handle, '@balajikijaiin', does on exist on the microblogging platform.
"We are trying to identify and trace the user of the Twitter account to ascertain the reason behind him or her deleting the account. However, we suspect that the person must be scared after the matter came to the limelight," a source in the Delhi police told PTI.
Mohammed Zubair, the co-founder of the fact-checking website Alt News, was arrested by the Delhi Police on Monday He has been charged with allegedly hurting religious sentiments and promoting enmity. He has been sent to police custody for four days.
According to the Deputy Commissioner of Police, Zubair was arrested in connection with one of his tweets that had a questionable image with the purpose of deliberately insulting the god of a particular religion.
Mr Zubair's arrest came just days after he flagged a video of since-suspended BJP leader Nupur Sharma's remarks against Prophet Mohammed on a TV show. He had been called for questioning in a 2020 case, in which the Delhi High Court had already granted him protection against arrest.
The Twitter user '@balajikijaiiin' had shared a 2018 tweet of Zubair which said 'Before 2014: Honeymoon Hotel. After 2014: Hanuman Hotel' along with a picture of a signboard of a hotel named "Honeymoon Hotel" changed to "Hanuman Hotel".
According to Delhi's first information report, @balajikijaiiin tweeted: "Linking our God Hanuman ji with Honey Moon is direct insult of Hindus because he is brahmchari (bachelor). Kindly take action against this guy."
The number of followers of the Twitter handle, which had flagged the tweet by Zubair, went from 1 to 1,200 within a day of Delhi police filing the complaint.