New Delhi: Supreme Court granted bail on Wednesday AltNews Co-founder Mohammad Zubair in each of the eight criminal cases registered against him in different districts by the Uttar Pradesh Police.
The court directed the Tihar Jail superintendent to ensure Zubair’s release before 6 pm on Wednesday.
A bench headed by Justice DY Chandrachud in its order said: “There is no justification for continuing custody of the petitioner, especially since the gravity of the allegations in the FIR of Uttar Pradesh is similar to that of the FIR of Delhi Police.”
The bench further observed that “the existence of the power of arrest should be distinguished from the exercise of the powers of arrest, which should be used sparingly”.
Zubair was granted protection from arrest, even in respect of all future FIRs that may be filed in respect of the same subject.
The court allowed Zubair’s plea to club all the FIRs and transfer the investigation in these cases to the Delhi Police Special Cell, which has registered a case against him on a 2018 tweet.
The Delhi Police’s FIR has been registered under various sections of the IPC, such as hate speech and hurting religious sentiments.
Similar allegations have been made in the UP FIR against Zubair for several tweets made since 2014.
As a result, the court dissolved and declared the Special Investigation Team (SIT) set up by the UP Police as redundant. It said that all proceedings in respect of the FIR would now be before the Delhi High Court. Similarly, transfer of FIR will be applicable to all future FIRs that may be registered on the same subject.
The court’s order came on Zubair’s plea seeking quashing of the FIR lodged against him in UP. As an alternative prayer, Zubair had asked the court to club all the FIRs and transfer its investigation to the Delhi Police.
The court did not quash the FIR, but gave Zubair liberty to approach the Delhi High Court under section 482 of the Code of Criminal Procedure to avail this legal remedy.
The order requires Zubair to produce a bail bond of Rs 20,000 before the chief metropolitan magistrate of the Patiala House courts.
Read also: Alt-News co-founder Zubair denied bail, police add criminal conspiracy and FCRA sections to FIR
UP’s request to rein in tweets turned down
The bench turned down the request of the UP government to stop Zubair from tweeting.
“How can we say that? It is asking a lawyer not to argue, not a person to speak. Whatever he will do, he will be responsible for the law, but we do not write to a journalist.” Can’t say for the same,” the bench told Additional Advocate General Garima Prasad when she sought directions.
According to Zubair, all the FIRs in UP and the FIRs of Delhi Police are based on his different tweets. However, the nature of the allegations and offenses in all these FIRs are the same, their plea said.
Moreover, the scope of investigation by UP’s SIT is similar to that of Delhi Police, which is probing allegations against Zubair, including alleged violations under the foreign exchange regulation.
Zubair was first arrested by the Delhi Police on June 27 after an alleged objectionable tweet by him was posted by an anonymous Twitter user who alleged that it hurt his religious sentiments.
From Tihar Jail, Zubair was taken to Sitapur in connection with a case registered against him for calling Hindu saints “spreaders of hatred” in one of his tweets.
On July 8, the SC granted interim relief to Zubair and ordered his release in the Sitapur case. A Delhi court had granted him regular bail on July 15 in the Delhi Police case. However, Zubair could not get out of jail due to pending other cases against him in UP.
When, on July 12, an SC bench headed by Justice Chandrachud increased its security in the Sitapur case, the UP Police set up an SIT and his police custody was sought in another case registered in Hathras, UP.
On July 18, Zubair had approached the Supreme Court seeking quashing of the UP FIR. Before the court on Wednesday, his lawyer Vrinda Grover drew the bench’s attention to the tweets and their contents. She argued that the language in none of the tweets attracted criminal law provisions.
On the contrary, she said, Zubair tagged the UP police to draw their attention to the alleged crimes.
Also, Grover said, the essence of all the FIRs against the petitioner remained the same. He said criminal law has been used to harass and silence Zubair’s voice. He alleged that many cases in UP are signs of misuse of statutory powers by the state police machinery.
Grover denied the hate tweets or any religious denomination were offensive.
In response, Prasad, appearing for the UP government, claimed that Mohammad Zubair was neither a journalist nor a fact-checker, but a person who, under the guise of fact-checking, promoted inflammatory material that had the potential to create communal divisions. There was capacity.
In defense of his decision to set up an SIT to probe the FIR registered against Zubair, the state further alleged that he made “malicious tweets” for financial gain.
Prasad told the bench that Zubair was paid for his tweets, which he claimed to have acknowledged in his statement before the police. “The more malicious the tweet, the more it gets paid. He is not a journalist,” she alleged.
He said that there is a real apprehension that Zubair’s tweet spread hatred and created communal division. The intention of the state behind registering the case was to maintain peace.
He said that as far as the SIT is concerned, it was constituted so that the local police stations do not take coercive action in case of any criminal act.
The top court in its order said that it is clear that the investigation of the Delhi Police Special Cell is comprehensive. Granting bail to Zubair in the two cases did not protect his personal liberty as he is “continuously embroiled in FIRs” in UP, the court recorded in its order.
“Essentially the crux of the allegations is the tweets made by him. Delhi Police has done a lot of continuous investigation of him. We have not found the reason for depriving him of his liberty to continue further,” the court said.
(Edited by Sunanda Ranjan)
Read also: Summoned in 2020 case, arrested for 2018 tweet – Zubair’s lawyers say he was ‘cheated’