‘Will Fight Attempt To Shut Us Down’: Alt News on FCRA Charges Against Zubair

Police said that Pravda Media received Rs 2,31,933 through foreign funding, an allegation that Alt News has denied.

Alt News co-founder Mohammed Zubair.

(Photo: The Quint)

What began as a case against Alt News co-founder Mohammed Zubair for allegedly “hurting religious sentiments” has become an investigation into the workings of the fact-checking website Alt News.

The Delhi Police have alleged that Pravda Media – the parent company of Alt News, has received Rs 2,31,933 through foreign funding, an allegation that Alt News has strictly denied.

On Monday, 4 July, the fact-checking website put out a statement and said, “The allegation that individuals associated with the organisation have received funds in their personal accounts is also false since the individuals associated with the organisation only get monthly remuneration.”

Five days after Zubair was arrested by the Delhi Police for allegedly "hurting religious sentiments" and "promoting enmity" via a tweet he had posted in 2018, charges pertaining to “criminal conspiracy” and “disappearance of evidence” were also added against him.

Apart from this, the Delhi Police added section 35 of the Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act, 2010, in the FIR against Zubair, said DCP (IFSO) KPS Malhotra.

Meanwhile, Malhotra has claimed that an “analysis of the reply received from Razorpay payment gateway revealed that there are various transactions, in which either the mobile phone number is of outside India or the IP address is of foreign countries and cities including Bangkok, Australia, North Holland, Singapore, Victoria, New York, England, Riyadh region, Sharjah, Stockholm, Abu Dhabi, and Washington, among others.”

The statement by Alt News read:

“Hello all, multiple allegations have been cast upon Alt News and its parent organization Pravda Media Foundation in the past few days. The allegations claim that we have received funds from foreign sources from whom we cannot receive donations. These allegations are categorically false. Out payment platform through which we receive donations does not allow receipts of funds from foreign sources and we have received donations from Indian bank accounts only. All the donations collected through these means go to the organisation’s bank account."

It added, "The allegation that individuals associated with the organisation have received funds in their personal accounts is also false since the individuals associated with the organisation only get monthly remuneration. All of this is an attempt to shut down the very critical work that we do, and we will fight this attempt to shut us down and come out on top.”

Razorpay Disables Alt News Account, Later Re-Activates It

Payment gateway Razorpay disabled the account of Alt News, the website said, mentioning that they are in the process of shifting their donation system to a new platform.

"We are unable to receive donations at this point in time as Razorpay, the payment platform that we were using to receive donations, has disabled our account. We are in the process of shifting our donation system to a new platform, and will inform our readers and supporters when we have made the shift," Alt News wrote in its statement.

Later, however, Razorpay said that they had temporarily deactivated Alt News' account after receiving a request from the police to do so, adding that it was later reactivated, The Hindu reported.

(With inputs from The Hindu.)