This Article is From Jul 12, 2022

Supreme Court To Take Up Fact-Checker Mohammed Zubair's Bail Plea Today

A bench of Justices DY Chandrachud and AS Bopanna will hear the case.

Mohammed Zubair was first arrested on June 27 by the Delhi police

New Delhi:

The Supreme Court will hear today fact-checker Mohammed Zubair's petition against an Allahabad High Court order refusing to cancel a case against him in UP's Sitapur for a tweet in which he allegedly called Hindu seers 'hatemongers'.

A bench of Justices DY Chandrachud and AS Bopanna will hear the case.

His appeal in the top court had said that the allegations of the FIR against him are "absolutely false and baseless".

He claimed to be innocent and said that he has not committed any offence.

"The police are threatening to arrest the petitioner (Zubair) and the life and liberty of the petitioner are in danger. The inclusion of this criminal offence in the FIR portrays the cavalier, malicious and arbitrary manner in which the Respondents (Uttar Pradesh Police) have acted against the Petitioner," the appeal stated.

Last week, the top court had granted interim bail for five days to Mr Zubair, co-founder of fact-checking website Alt News, in the FIR registered against him in UP's Sitapur.

The court had made it clear that the interim bail order was only with respect to FIR lodged in Sitapur against Mr Zubair and it has nothing to do with the case registered in Delhi.

Mr Zubair was told by the court not to post tweets regarding the case. It had also made it clear that this order will also not come in the way of investigation or seizure of evidence in the Sitapur case.

The UP government has called him a habitual offender who is part of a syndicate, which is regularly posting such tweets with intention to destabilise the country.

The fact-checker was first arrested on June 27 by the Delhi police over a four-year-old tweet that carried a screenshot from a Hindi film released in 1983. The arrest came days after he had flagged a video of now-suspended BJP leader Nupur Sharma's provocative remarks on Prophet Mohammed on a TV show.

.