New Delhi: Delhi's Patiala House Court on Saturday rejected the bail plea of Alt News Co-Founder Mohammed Zubair, and sent him into 14-day judicial custody.
Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Snigdha Sarvaria of Patiala House Courts pronounced the order at around 7 pm. Interestingly, hours before the court order, several media outlets quoting Delhi police had reported as early as 2:30 pm that Zubair's bail had been rejected and that he was sent to 14-day custody.
Zubair's lawyer, Soutik Banerjee, slammed Delhi Police Deputy Commissioner KPS Malhotra for "leaking the order to the media" even before the judicial magistrate had pronounced it. “Extremely scandalous and speaks of the status of rule of law in our country today that even before the judicial magistrate has sat and pronounced the order, Police has leaked the order to media. How KPS Malhotra knows what the order is beyond me. This calls for introspection,” Banerjee said while speaking to media outside the court.
Meanwhile, Delhi Police Deputy Commissioner KPS Malhotra admitted that he had 'inadvertently' informed the media about the order while speaking to the Investigating Officer. "I had a word with my IO (investigating officer), I misheard it due to noise and inadvertently the message was posted in the broadcast," he said. This came after Zubair's lawyer, Soutik Banerjee, alleged that "police have leaked the order to the media" before the judicial magistrate had even pronounced the order.
Earlier in the day, Delhi Police levelled fresh charges against Zubair days after he was produced before the court related to an allegedly offensive tweet concerning Hindu deities from 2018. The police had sought 14-day judicial custody and alleged conspiracy and destruction of evidence, adding that the accused received donations from foreign countries.
The police have added three new Sections 201 (for the destruction of evidence - formatted phone & deleted tweets), 120-(B) (for criminal conspiracy) of IPC and Section 35 of the Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act, 2010 to the FIR registered against the fact-checker Mohammed Zubair.
Also read: Journalists should not be jailed for what they write: UN on Zubair's arrest
The police argued before the court that during social media analysis, it was noticed that Twitter's handles supporting Mohammad Zubair after his arrest, were from Pakistan and mostly middle eastern countries like UAE, Bahrain and Kuwait. A total of about Rs 2,31,933 have been received by Pravda Media, Alt News's parent company, the Delhi Police added.
From the analysis of the reply received from Razorpay Payment gateway, various transactions, with phone numbers or IP addresses outside India, were from locations including Bangkok, Manama, North Holland, Singapore, Victoria, New York, England, and the Riyadh region.
Zubair was produced before the court on the expiry of his five-day custodial interrogation. The police told Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Snigdha Sarvaria that he was not required anymore for custodial interrogation. After the police application, Zubair moved a bail plea before the court. (With Agency inputs)
