By Rajesh Pandey
Allahabad High Court has extended the stay on the arrest of Alt News co-founder Mohammed Zubair until March 3 (Monday) in connection with an FIR against him over alleged ‘X’ Post (formerly Twitter) on Yati Narsinghanand’s ‘derogatory’ speech.
Hearing a writ petition filed by Zubair, a division bench comprising Justice Siddhartha Varma and Justice Dr YK Srivastava fixed March 3, 2025, as the next hearing of the case.
In the present writ petition, Zubair has challenged an FIR lodged against him accusing him of promoting enmity among religious groups, among other charges.
This FIR against Zubair was lodged by one Udita Tyagi, an associate of controversial priest Yati Narsinghanand.
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 programme 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 ‘derogator. ‘.
In his writ petition before the high court, Zubair requested the court to see the 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.
