By
Rajesh Pandey
The Allahabad High Court on Friday stayed the arrest of Alt News co-founder Mohammed Zubair till the next date of listing of this case about an FIR lodged against him by the Ghaziabad Police last month, accusing him of promoting enmity among religious groups, among other charges, following a complaint by an associate of controversial priest Yati Narsinghanand.
While passing the above directives, the court directed that the petitioner will cooperate in the investigation. “Since the counsel for the petitioner has given his undertaking that he would not go out of the country, we also provide that the petitioner shall not go out of the country. He may surrender his passport with the Commissioner of Police at Ghaziabad”, the court further directed.
Hearing a writ petition filed by Mohammed Zubair, a division bench comprising Justice Siddhartha Varma and Justice Nalin Kumar Srivastava directed the state government to file a detailed counter affidavit within three weeks. The court also directed the counsel for the informant to file a counter affidavit within the same period. After this, the court fixed January 6, 2025, as the next date of hearing.
In the complaint made by Udita Tyagi, general secretary of the Yati Narsinghanand Saraswati Trust, it was claimed that Zubair posted a video clip of an old program of Narsinghanand on October 3, 2024, with the intent to provoke violence by Muslims against him.
It has further been alleged in the complaint that Zubair posted edited clips of the priest on X (formerly Twitter), containing Narsinghanand’s alleged incendiary remarks on Prophet Muhammad, to incite radical sentiments against the controversial priest. In his X Post, he called the alleged speech of Narsinghanand ‘derogatory’.
The FIR against Mohammed Zubair was lodged under sections 196 (promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion), 228 (fabricating false evidence), 299 (deliberate and malicious acts intended to outrage religious feelings), 356(3) (defamation) and 351(2) (punishment for criminal intimidation) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), which was earlier Indian Penal Code (IPC). Subsequently, the police added section 152 of BNS, Section 152 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) deals with acts that threaten India’s sovereignty, unity, and integrity. It punishes people who attempt to incite rebellion, secession, or separatist activities through words, signs, or any form of communication.
In his writ petition before the high court, Zubair requested the court to seek quashing of the FIR and protection from coercive action. In his plea, he stated that his X post does not call for violence against Yati. Rather, he had merely alerted the police authorities about Narsinghanand’s actions and sought action as per law, and this could not amount to promoting disharmony or ill-will between two classes of people.
