Alt News co-founder Mohammed Zubair was sent on 14-day judicial remand by a Sitapur court on Monday, 4 July, after the fact-checker was produced on warrant B in a case based on a complaint by Bhagwan Sharan, the district president of Hindu Lion Army.
Sitapur CO Piyush Singh told The Quint that the police had been granted permission to record Zubair's statement. "An investigating officer from Sitapur police will record his statement in Tihar jail tomorrow," Singh said.
"Based on the statement, we will move the court for police custody after the judicial custody ends," he added.
A First Information Report (FIR) was registered against Zubair on 3 June at the Khairabad police station, for calling Hindu religious leaders like Yati Narasinghanand Saraswati, Bajrang Muni, and Anand Swaroop "hatemongers" in his tweet dated 27 May.
Zubair was booked under Section 295A (deliberate and malicious acts, intended to outrage religious feelings of any class by insulting its religion or religious beliefs) of the Indian Penal Code and Section 67 of the Information Technology Act, 2000.
The Allahabad High Court on 13 June dismissed a petition by Zubair challenging the FIR registered against him.
Hate Speeches by Leaders
All three religious leaders mentioned in the tweet have been booked in hate speech cases over the past few months for making inflammatory statements about Muslims.
Mahant Bajrang Muni had allegedly threatened to kidnap and rape Muslim women during a rally on 2 April. Muni was arrested over the incident but was granted bail on 24 April. After being released, he said that he had no regrets, and argued that he had made the statements to protect Hindu women.
Swami Anand Swaroop, a member of the Dharam Sansad core committee, was one of the key organisers of the Prayagraj Dharam Sansad event, where there were multiple instances of hate speech and calls for anti-Muslim violence.
A notice was also issued to Yati Narsinghanand Saraswati by the Ghaziabad Police for his statement supporting ex-Bharatiya Janata Party national spokesperson Nupur Sharma.
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