Additional Sessions Judge Devender Kumar Jangala of Patiala House Courts granted the bail on furnishing a bond of Rs 50,00 with one surety and asked Mohammed Zubair not to leave the country without the court’s permission
Mohammed Zubair, the co-founder of Alt News, was granted bail by a Delhi court on Friday. He had been detained after being accused of inciting hatred and hurting religious feelings through a tweet he wrote in 2018.
Further Sessions On presentation of a bond for Rs 50,000 with a guarantor, Judge Devender Kumar Jangala of the Patiala House Courts granted the bail and instructed him not to leave the country without the court’s consent.
When the judge learned that the police had not taken the statement of the person behind the anonymous Twitter handle that highlighted Zubair’s remark and ultimately sparked an investigation by the Delhi Police, he instructed them to follow the criminal procedure and not rely on tweets.
The prosecution had prayed that Zubair not be granted bail since his tweet was meant to incite people and create ill will. The police claimed a foreign funding angle and said, “Zubair accepted payments and till date has not disclosed the identity of the persons who transferred the money.”
These accusations have been explicitly refuted by Zubair’s attorneys. The name of the person behind the anonymous Twitter account that found Zubair’s tweet, according to his attorneys, has not yet been made public.
They had also argued that Zubair had not taken any foreign donation. Advocate Vrinda Grover who appeared for Zubair had argued that “FCRA has no application in this case” and was “belatedly added” because the case was not able to withstand the IPC sections that were added before.
