On Friday (20th December), the Allahabad High Court stayed the arrest of Alt New co-founder Mohammed Zubair, accused of creating social disharmony through a social media post.
The matter was heard by a 2-judge Bench of Justices Siddhartha Varma and Nalin Kumar Srivastava. The court stayed the arrest till the next hearing scheduled on 6th January 2025.
Mohammed Zubair has been directed to not leave the country and cooperate with the police in the investigation process.
Justice Varma : We can hear it on Monday, on the opening (January 6). It requires more detailed arguments regarding Section 152 BNS, separatist activity, and feeling of separative activity. So whatever you have argued, we will pass orders protecting him till the 2nd January only.…
— Live Law (@LiveLawIndia) December 20, 2024
The Allahabad High Court has further asked the Uttar Pradesh government to file a detailed counter in the case by 6th January 2025.
During the hearing, the government had submitted how Mohammed Zubair threatened to undermine India’s sovereignty and integrity through a series of posts on X (formerly Twitter).
Additional Advocate General Manish Goyal highlighted, “The FIR shows what your conduct has done. It caused so much damage and has created a threat to the sovereignty and integrity of the country. He (Zubair) is giving half-baked information on his X post. He is not checking that the court gave the bail to Yati Narsinghanand.”
AAG : The FIR shows what your conduct has done. It caused so much damage and has created a threat to the sovereignty and integrity of the country. He is giving half-baked information on his X post. He is not checking that the court gave the bail to #YatiNarsinghanand.
— Live Law (@LiveLawIndia) December 20, 2024
For the unversed, the dubious ‘fact checker’ was accused of promoting enmity and inciting violence by sharing old and edited video clips of Yati Narsinghanand.
The Uttar Pradesh police had booked Mohammed Zubair under Section 152 of BNS.
