Zubair urges Supreme Court to quash six FIRs against him in Uttar Pradesh
The Hindu
The fact-checker has also challenged formation of Special Investigation Team by the police to investigate cases
Alt News co-founder Mohammed Zubair has moved the Supreme Court seeking to quash six First Information Reports (FIRs) registered against him in Uttar Pradesh for insulting religious feelings on Twitter. The FIRs have been registered at Muzaffarnagar, Ghaziabad, Sitapur, Lakhimpur and Hathras.
The fact-checker has also challenged the formation of a Special Investigation Team (SIT) by the Uttar Pradesh Police to investigate the cases.
In the alternative, Mr. Zubair said the cases in Uttar Pradesh should be clubbed with the one in Delhi. He was first arrested in the Delhi case on June 27. He has also sought interim bail in all the six FIRs in Uttar Pradesh.
On July 8, a Vacation Bench of the Supreme Court had allowed interim bail to Mr. Zubair for five days in the Sitapur case subject to several conditions, including that he does not tweet.
On July 12, the Supreme Court extended the interim bail till further orders in the Sitapur case while giving time to Uttar Pradesh to file its counter-affidavit. The case is scheduled for September 7.
The Sitapur case was registered in June this year over a tweet by Mr. Zubair which referred to hate-speech accused Hindu seers, Bajrang Muni, Yati Narsinghanand, and Anand Swaroop as "hatemongers".
In the Lakhimpur Kheri case registered at the Mohammadi police station, Mr. Zubair has already filed a bail application and the police are looking to seek his police custody.