Nupur Sharma’s complaint a trigger for fact-checker Zubair’s arrest?

New Delhi: Fact-checking journalist of Alt News, Mohammad Zubair has busted a large amount of fake news on social media, especially Twitter, and in many cases concerned state police have acted after Zubair’s verification. Because Zubair also addressed hate speech on social media, he was politically criticized by some politicians for taking a certain political line. The administrators of the Peace Research Institute Oslo (PRIO) have nominated human rights activist Harsh Mander, Co-founders of Alt News Mohammed Zubair and Pratik Sinha for the Nobel Peace Prize.

For peace, He has exposed hate speeches of convicted hatemonger Yati Narsinghanand and others that resulted in his getting trolled by the right-wing elements. But the situation got this serious only after the former BJP spokesperson Nupur Sharma’s episode. After her comment on national television that hurt the sentiments of the Muslim community, many people on Twitter posted that clip along with Zubair. But Nupur alleged that Zubair had blown it out of proportion and spread across the world, that’s the reason a backlash against her happened. She also said Zubair should be booked.

Nupur in his video statement has accused Zubair and said, “If anything happens to me, hold Mohammad Zubair responsible.”

Later the people whose hate speeches were reported by Zubair including bailed Yati Narsinghanand, openly demanded arresting Zubair. Many BJP politicians followed the suit and ran the hashtag #ArrestZubair but nothing happened in those days as a 2020 POCSO case against Zubair was already going on in the court and he was acquitted from it by the High Court.

It may be noted that Delhi Police haven’t found anything against Zubair in those days to make a case against him. But without reference to Nupur Sharma, Delhi police have acted on a Twitter complaint of an unknownTwitter User which doesn’t even have much followers. There are thousands of Twitter complaints tagging Police Twitter handles posted on Twitter on a daily basis but police only act when they come from some influential twitter handle, that’s the way Cyber Police normally works.

Screenshot of original Twitter complaint:

But in this case a joke by Zubair taken from a Hindi movie was subjected as ‘Hate against a particular community’ by the Delhi police. Mohammad Zubair of Alt News was arrested by Delhi Police under Sections 153 & 295A of IPC. 295A – Deliberate and malicious acts, intended to outrage religious feelings of any class by insulting its religion or religious beliefs, 153 – provocation leading to riots.

According to Alt News co-founder Pratik Sinha, He was not provided with any FIR copy or remand application. Read his statement: https://twitter.com/free_thinker/status/1541429247184515074

Pratik claimed that Zubair’s lawyers were not allowed to meet him after the arrest and they took him to an undisclosed location. However, now Counsels Soutik Banerjee and Kawalpreet Kaur appeared for Zubair. The police had sought 7 days police custody. The duty magistrate declined to give long custody and allowed custody for only 1 day. Half hour visitation has been allowed for the lawyer.

Many political leaders have condemned the arrest and called it a state vendetta. Here are some Political reactions on the arrest of fact-checker Mohammad Zubair:

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi

SP Supremo Akhilesh Yadav

Congress MP Shahshi Tharoor:

Apart from the reactions of the Indian political parties there was a national and global reaction of the journalistic community on the arrest of a fact-checking journalist.

DigiPub News India Foundation and The Editors Guild of India have put out statements against the arrest on Twitter. Both organizations demanded imediate release of Muhammad Zubair by the Delhi Police.

The United States-based non-profit organization Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) also called out India against Zubair’s arrest and demanded unconditional release.

—-INDIA NEWS STREAM