New Delhi. The Delhi High Court has rapped the Delhi Police for not taking action against journalist and founder of fact-checking website Alt News Mohammad Zubair for posting objectionable tweets in August 2020. Justice Anoop Jairam Bhambhani’s bench ordered the next hearing of the case on 14 September.
During the hearing, the court told the Delhi Police that you have taken all action against Mohammad Zubair, but now you are saying that no case is made out against Zubair because there is no evidence, but what action has been taken against the person who tweeted objectionable against Zubair. Went.
Justice Bhambhani said that the Supreme Court has said that the police should take automatic action on the issue of hate speech. Then the Delhi Police said that it would follow the guidelines of the Supreme Court. The court then directed the Delhi Police to file a fresh status report.
During the hearing on March 2, the court had asked the Delhi Police that you did not name Zubair in the charge sheet. But what action did you take against those who posted objectionable tweets against Zubair. What did you do against Jagdish Singh. On January 5, the Delhi Police had said that no crime had taken place in response to Zubair’s August 2020 tweet on Twitter by a user. Earlier, the Delhi Police had registered an FIR against Zubair under the POCSO Act. Advocate Nandita Rao, appearing for the Delhi Police, told the court that Zubair has not been made an accused in the charge sheet of the relevant FIR. After that the court directed to file the charge sheet in the record of the court.
The matter is related to a tweet dated August 2020. In this tweet, Zubair had shared the profile picture of a user and asked if it was okay to use foul language. The profile picture had a photo of the user’s granddaughter. In his retweet, Zubair had blurred the photo of the user’s granddaughter in the user’s profile picture. Zubair had said in his reply tweet that ‘ Helloxxx, does your cute granddaughter know that your part time job is to abuse people on social media. I advise you to change your profile picture. After this, the concerned user lodged several complaints against Zubair. The user alleged that Zubair had committed cyber sexual harassment against her granddaughter.
In the FIR lodged in Delhi, Zubair was charged under sections 509(b) of the Indian Penal Code and sections 67 and 67A of the IT Act, besides the POCSO Act. In this case, the Delhi Police told the court in May 2022 that no cognizable offense was made out against Zubair. However, the National Child Protection Commission told the court that the police in its status report had told it that Zubair was not cooperating in the investigation. The High Court had imposed an interim stay on Zubair’s arrest on 9 September 2020.
