New Delhi: Alt News co-founder Mohammed Zubair was arrested by Delhi Police on Monday for allegedly hurting religious sentiments of certain community and also promoting enmity. He was remanded to police custody for 1 day and is set to produced in court today.
Meanwhile, his colleague & co-founder Pratik Sinha has accused the Delhi police of abuse of law and claimed that it didn’t follow the standard norms of enquiry.
Zubair’s arrest comes days after several Hinduphobic posts from his Facebook account went viral. When netizens called him out for mocking Hindu gods & goddess, he apparently deleted many of them. He also deleted over a dozen of tweets, though jury is out on his intentions behind this.
Many are asking that if had no intention to hurt religious feelings of other community, why he posted it in the first place.
Meanwhile, his arrest has given fodder to political parties especially Congress which has gone all guns blazing against the Modi govt, with many leaders calling it brazen abuse of power to silence those who are busting fake news factories and exposing the ‘hate machinery’.
Not just this, the Lutyens lobby which usually remains silent or unvocal in similar situations, has gone overboard in slamming the Centre.
Liberal cabal loses cool over Zubair’s arrest
‘Journalist’ Rana Ayyub facing an ED probe for alleged money laundering took to Twitter to claim that Prime Minister has unleashed Emergency in India.
A couple of members from the Lutyens lobby took strong objection to his arrest and said that govt is mute on hatemongers but silencing the fake news busters.
The Prime Minister of India talks about the horrors of Emergency while he has unleashed one in India. Journalist Zubair who routinely busted fake news, exposed the hate machinery in India has just been arrested. The country is punishing those who reported, documented the decline
— Rana Ayyub (@RanaAyyub) June 27, 2022
Journalist who routinely busted fake news, and called out hate speech, especially the recent incident of the BJP spokesperson’s controversial comments on the Prophet, arrested #zubair https://t.co/wdBXhmQVDv
— Gargi Rawat (@GargiRawat) June 27, 2022
Delhi police has arrested @zoo_bear
But for what? To expose the mindset of few people who don’t think twice before insulting someone’s religion on national TV??— sohit mishra (@sohitmishra99) June 27, 2022
“There is no action against the person who gave hate speech but the govt doesn’t want people to see this video in India.” As @zoo_bear (now arrested) put it yesterday, this is it.
Just don’t want the truth about India’s descent into darkness to get out. https://t.co/B0zo96QfYM— Seema Chishti (@seemay) June 27, 2022
Delhi police did not arrest BJP’s spokesperson who hurt the sentiments of Indian Muslims and Muslims of over 15 other countries but took absolute no time to arrest @zoo_bear. Law should be equal for all. #IStandWithZubair https://t.co/2rNhPMemNQ
— Dr Md Jawaid (@DrMdJawaid1) June 27, 2022
TV debate that ignited protests, shared by Zubair
Most of these people are apparently upset over the fact that BJP spokesperson is not yet arrested over derogatory remarks against Prophet while Zubair has been put behind bars.
In the heated conversation with fellow panelist, BJP spokesperson Nupur Sharma said that since Hindu beliefs were mocked upon, the same could have been done with other religion. In the heat of moment, she made some remarks which offended the Muslim community.
Following this, fact checker Mohammed Zubair shared the clip of TV debate and declared Nupur Sharma a rabid communal hatemonger and someone who can incite riots.
