New Delhi, July 15: Delhi's Patiala House Court on Friday granted bail to Alt News co-founder Mohammed Zubair in a case related to an alleged objectionable tweet case in which he was arrested by the Delhi Police last month.
Additional Sessions Judge Devender Kumar Jangla on Friday granted bail Mohammed Zubair and directed him to deposit a personal bail bond of Rs 50,000 and one like amount surety. He cannot leave the country without prior permission of the court, ASJ Devender Kumar Jangla added. On Thursday, the court had kept the order reserved after the conclusion of the argument of both sides.
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Delhi Police special public prosecutor Atul Srivastava, while opposing the bail plea of Mohd Zubair, submitted that the bail should not be granted at this stage as there was a violation of the Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act. Investigation in the matter is at a good pace without any bias, he said.
The Delhi Police said, "Rs 56 lakh were received by the organisation where he (Mohd Zubair) is a director, violating the FCRA. We gave notice to the Razor pay. There is also a certain forgery in this case which may be done, we are looking at that. The bank's notice has already been issued."
The police alleged that it was done in a planned and clever way. "It is not as simple as Zubair's lawyer has projected," Delhi Police's lawyer submitted.
Atul Srivastava submitted before the sessions court that Zubair through tweets hurt the sentiments of a community. "Hanuman ji is Brahmchari and he through his tweets compared Hanuman ji with Honeymoon," he said.
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Advocate Vrinda Grover appearing for Zubair denied the Delhi Police allegations of foreign funding. She submitted, "No foreign contribution has been received by me, neither in my personal nor in the organisation's account. We have invited people to donate to our organisation, but it is boldly written that we don't accept foreign funding...as we're not registered under FCRA. Therefore we don't take foreign remittances. Our receiving of the donations and funding are very transparent."
Zubair's lawyer, however, showed a screenshot of the Alt News portal which is clearly written that 'donate now' and was in the public domain.
The FIR against Zubair was lodged on June 20 based on a complaint filed by the Duty Officer of the IFSO unit of the Delhi Police Special Cell that tackles cyber crimes. Zubair was arrested and sent to one-day of police custody after an FIR was registered against him based on a Twitter posting, which another Twitter handle alleged "hurt Hindu sentiments."
-PTC News
