The National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) has asked Pratik Sinha, the co-founder of the alleged fact-checking website AltNews to submit proof before the commission to substantiate his claims in connection with the child harassment case filed against co-founder Mohammed Zubair.
The NCPCR receiving the complaint against Mohammed Zubair, who is accused of online harassment of a minor, has asked Pratik Sinha to appear before the commission and provide proof to support the claims he had made in support of his colleague soon after the complaint was registered.
Acting on complaint filed by individual; @NCPCR_ asked @AltNews co-founder Pratik Sinha @free_thinker to provide proofs/facts to the Commission in favor of his claims that child doxing n #POCSO complaint against his colleague Mohammed Zubair @zoo_bear was bogus as claimed by him pic.twitter.com/txVjwMzX21
— Forum for Indigenous Rights- North-East India (@fir_ne) September 24, 2020
On August 8, National Commission for Protection of Child Rights had taken cognizance of a matter where a minor girl child was doxxed by AltNews co-founder Mohammed Zubair on the microblogging site.
Following the complaint against Zubair, Pratik Sinha had taken to Twitter to defend the actions of his colleague and had claimed that the complaint against Zubair was an attempt to ‘hound’ the accused. Pratik Sinha had said that AltNews firmly stood in solidarity with the accused.
The self-proclaimed fact-checker Pratik Sinha had asserted that the NCPCR had acted against the accused Mohammad Zubair on the basis of a bogus complaint by the minor child’s grandfather.
It must be noted that NCPCR commission headed by @KanoongoPriyank has acted against @zoo_bear on basis of a bogus complaint by @JSINGH2252. Who is this @JSINGH2252? Here’s a preview into the vulgar mindset of this person. Is the establishment a voice for such people now? pic.twitter.com/aPfunXHBfq
— Pratik Sinha (@free_thinker) September 6, 2020
Mohammad Zubair, who has been caught several times peddling fake news on social media, has been booked under the stringent POCSO Act for online harassment of girl child.
Co-founder of AltNews shares the photo of a minor girl to intimidate the grandfather
On August 7th, Zubair indulged in an online spat with a Twitter user Jagdish Singh. The AltNews co-founder targetted a minor girl in his Twitter fight with this social media user. Instead of replying to the user directly, Zubair had brazenly referred to a minor girl seen in the profile picture of the user Jagdish Singh, presumably his granddaughter.
After Zubair had highlighted the minor girl seen in the photo, Islamists had started to issue rape threats to the girl. Zubair’s tweet came under criticism from social media users who accused him of shamelessly using a child to get back at a critic.
Soon, an FIR was filed against Mohammad Zubair for harassing a child on social media platforms. Priyank Kanoongo, the chairperson of the NCPCR had informed that a case was registered with the commission in connection with the online harassment of a minor child.
The National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) had written to the deputy commissioner of police (DCP) Delhi, Nodal Cyber Cell officer, saying that the commission has received several complaints seeking action against Zubair under POCSO or relevant acts for “stalking of a minor girl on Twitter”.
