SC Grants Interim Bail to Mohammad Zubair in UP Case

Alt News Co-founder Mohammad Zubair has been granted interim bail by the Supreme Court on Friday in the case registered against him in Sitapur in Uttar Pradesh and also issued notice to the state police on his plea challenging the Allahabad High Court order.

Zubair has been granted bail by Justices Indira Banerjee and JK Maheswari in a plea challenging the Allahabad High Court order refusing to quash FIR registered for a tweet in which he allegedly called three Hindu seers hate mongers.

He was granted interim bail for 5 days on the condition that he will not post any fresh tweets on the issue related to the case and not leave the jurisdiction of the Sitapur Magistrate’s court.

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The apex court also said that Zubair shall not tamper with electronic evidence in Bengaluru or anywhere else.

Solicitor General Tushar Mehta informed the Supreme Court that yesterday Zubair's counsel mentioned that there is a threat to his life.

"He's in judicial remand, his bail was rejected yesterday by Sitapur court and was sent to remand. This fact was not disclosed by him to the top court. It's a clear purposeful suppression of facts," said Mehta.

"Such conduct of suppression of facts should not be encouraged. He is seeking bail from the Supreme Court without telling this court that his bail was rejected yesterday by the Sitapur court," he added.

Senior advocate Colin Gonsalves, representing Zubair, told the Supreme Court that it was written in the petition that Sitapur police seek police custody of Zubair. The order challenged in the apex court is of the Allahabad High Court as reported by ANI.

Gonsalves says no criminal case can be made out against Zubair. "The foundation of this case is a tweet. We seek quashing of proceedings, and questions of police or judicial custody are irrelevant now. There's no case made out and the proceedings need to be quashed."

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