Mohammed Zubair and his partner Pratik Sinha arrested to combat fake news
Zubair who co-founded Alt news with Pratik Sinha in 2017 with motives to establish a platform that combats fake news has been arrested for promoting hate speech. He was allegedly accused of hurting people’s religious sentiments while highlighting the comments made by suspended BJP spokesperson, Nupur Sharma.
FIR against Zubair was lodged when the members of Hindu Sher Sena claimed that he had hurt their religious sentiments in his tweets. His tweet was condemned for calling Mahant Bajrang Muni ‘Udasin’, Yati Narsinghanand and Swami Anand Swarup ‘hatemongers’.
The complainant Bhagwan Sharan, who is the chief of Sitapur unit of Hindu Sher Sena complained that the tweet by Zubair used derogatory words against the mahants of his dharam sthal and that his actions were an insult to his faith and his deities.
Bhagwant Sharan even accused Zubair of enticing Muslims to murder Hindu leaders and hurting Hindu sentiments as being a part of this ongoing religious conspiracy.
Although, Zubair has not been vocal about the accusations made, his co-partner, Pratik Sinha commented that it was a matter of selective targeting.
Regarding the accusations against Zubair, he even said that Zubair’s social media is a proof enough that he never promotes hatred or condemns cultural diversity and that his work is ethically journalistic when he tweets on misinformation and hate speech.
However, in the recent hearing of Zubair’s case in high court, the Delhi police said that the tweet by Zubair ‘does not constitute any cognizable offence’. The final verdict for the case is yet to be announced.
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