UP’s Hathras court sends Alt News co-founder Mohd Zubair to 14 days’ judicial custody -

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Alt News co-founder Mohd Zubair was sent to 14 days’ judicial custody by the court of the chief judicial magistrate (CJM) in Hathras on Thursday in connection with a case registered at the Hathras Sadar Kotwali police station on July 4.

This case was registered on the complaint of Deepak Sharma, a resident of Hathras, for Zubair’s alleged remarks on Hindu gods and goddesses in a tweet in 2018.

Zubair was brought from Tihar Jail in Delhi and presented in court in connection with the case registered under Sections 153A (promoting enmity between different groups on ground of religion, race, etc.), 295A (deliberate and malicious acts, intended to outrage religious feelings of any class) and Section 298 (uttering words etc with deliberate intent to wound the religious feelings of any person) of Indian Penal Code and Section 67 (publishing or transmitting obscene material in electronic form) of the Information Technology Act.

“The court of the chief judicial magistrate (CJM), Hathras, has ordered 14-day judicial custody for Mohd Zubair (who was) presented in the Hathras court today. July 27 is the next date of hearing fixed in this case,” said Umang Rawat, the counsel for Mohd Zubair.

“Mohd Zubair has been moved back to Tihar jail after the hearing in the Hathras court. Soon, we will be moving a bail application before the court in Hathras for the release of Mohd Zubair,” Rawat said.

Tight security arrangements were made on the court premises in Hathras after a B warrant was issued in Zubair’s name and he was asked to appear in the court of the CJM on July 14.

On July 10, the Uttar Pradesh government constituted a two-member SIT headed by inspector general Preetinder Singh with DIG Amit Verma as a member to investigate six cases lodged against Mohd Zubair in five districts of Uttar Pradesh —Sitapur, Lakhimpur Kheri, Ghaziabad, Muzaffarnagar (one case each) and Hathras (two cases).

The second case in Hathras was registered at Sikandrarau police station on June 10, 2022.

This case was the outcome of violent protests in Purdil Nagar town of Hathras (under Sikandrarau police station limits) after Friday prayers on June 10 against blasphemous comments made by former BJP spokesperson Nupur Sharma.

This case (crime number 286 of 2022) was registered on the complaint of Sonu Rajjora, at the police outpost of Purdil Nagar, where the violent protests took place.

Mohd Zubair was not named in the case, but police suspect that he was involved in provoking the violent protest. This case is among the six cases being probed by a Special Investigation Team

source: Hindustan times