Delhi High Court agrees to hear Altnews co-founder on Friday Mohammad ZubairFollowing a complaint on a 2018 tweet challenging his police remand on charges of hurting religious sentiments, his lawyers said. It was filed before Justice Sanjeev Narula, who is expected to hear the application filed by Zubair’s counsel, advocate Vrinda Grover.
Zubair was arrested on Monday and booked under sections related to promoting enmity and outraging religious feelings after an anonymous Twitter user tagged Delhi Police saying that his tweet depicted a Hindu god. He was insulted, and a court sent him to four days’ police custody.
Meanwhile, a four-member team of Delhi Police flew from Zubair to Bengaluru on Thursday to recover his electronic devices from his house as part of investigation. While his phone was confiscated by the police after his arrest, they claimed that it was formatted and did not contain any data related to the case.
Sources in Bengaluru Police confirmed that the Cyber Crime Unit of Delhi Police arrived around 11 am and DJ Halli went to Zubair’s house in the police limits, where they stayed for over two hours. After the search a family member told Indian Express The Delhi team neither spoke to him nor questioned him. The police later took Zubair to DJ Halli police station where the formalities were completed. Sources said that around 5.30 pm, they left after collecting a bag full of electronic components.
A police officer said, “The device, its laptop and hard disk will be sent to FSL. Once the equipment is checked, we can further inquire from them…”
buy now , Our best subscription plan now has a special price
Police said they are looking for old phone data on his devices. “Zubair presented a complaint copy of his lost phone (used to tweet in 2018) but it is likely that he may have backed up his laptop, hard disk,” an official said.
The police had earlier told the court that they needed his laptop to investigate the matter. Zubair’s lawyers had argued that the police were seeking access to his laptop as he was “challenging a lot of things that are happening”.
AltNews co-founder Prateek Sinha tweeted: “Zubair tweeted (in 2018)… from a phone that was snatched from him in 2021, for which he has submitted a copy of the police complaint. Still, Delhi Police went to Bengaluru to collect his laptop, a device that has nothing to do with the tweet.”