The Supreme Court has listed a plea filed by Alt News co-founder Mohammed Zubair for urgent hearing tomorrow, July 8.
Zubair filed a plea in the top court seeking the quashing of an FIR filed against him by the Uttar Pradesh police in a case of hurting religious sentiments. In plea seeking urgent hearing, Zubair, through his lawyer, has also cited a threat to his life.
Zubair, in his plea in the top court, challenged the Allahabad High Court’s decision to refuse quashing of the FIR registered against him for a controversial tweet in which he allegedly referred to three Hindu seers — Yati Narasinghanand Saraswati, Bajrang Muni and Anand Swaroop — as ‘hate mongers’.
Hearing Zubair’s lawyer seeking urgent listing, a bench of Justices Indira Banerjee and JK Maheshwari said that the matter can be listed tomorrow, Friday, subject to clearance from the Chief Justice of India.
In his argument before the bench, Advocate Colin Gonsalves, representing Zubair, said that the FIR against his client by the UP Police shows there no crime.
“His work is to verify news, and he was doing the role of fact-checking hate speeches. The FIR clearly shows that there is no crime. We went to Allahabad High Court, but no relief was granted. Bail is sought in an emergency. There are death threats to Zubair on social media,” Bar and Bench quoted Gonsalves as saying.
