Alt News co-founder Mohammad Zubair challenges Ghaziabad Police's FIR in Allahabad High Court

Prayagraj (UP): The Allahabad High Court has accepted the application filed for amendment in the writ petition of Alt News co-founder Mohammad Zubair. Zubair has filed this petition challenging the FIR registered against him on 8 October. This application for amendment in the petition has been filed after the Ghaziabad Police included new allegations in the FIR. Ghaziabad Police has added Section 152 (acts threatening the sovereignty, unity and integrity of India) of the Indian Justice Code (BNS) in the FIR.

The order allowing the amendment has been passed by a bench of Justice Mahesh Chandra Tripathi and Justice Prashant Kumar. The court has fixed the next date of hearing in this case as December 3, 2024. In the FIR registered last month, Mohammad Zubair has been accused of increasing animosity between religious groups in a complaint filed by an associate of controversial religious leader Yeti Narasimhanand, among other charges.

The complaint, filed by Udita Tyagi, general secretary of Yati Narsinghanand Saraswati Trust, alleged that Zubair posted a video clip of an old programme of Narsinghanand on October 3, 2024 with an intent to incite violence against Narsinghanand among Muslims. Earlier, during the hearing on November 25, the high court had directed the investigating officer to file an affidavit by the next date clarifying the sections invoked against Zubair.

Filing a reply on Tuesday, the investigating officer said that two new sections - Section 152 of the BNS and Section 66 of the Information Technology Act - have been added to the FIR. Initially, Zubair has been booked under Sections 196 (inciting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion), 228 (creating false evidence), 299 (malicious acts with intent to outrage religious feelings) and 351 (2) (punishment for criminal intimidation) of the Indian Penal Code.

Alt News stands with Mohammed Zubair pic.twitter.com/kpVhN0io04

— Alt News (@AltNews) November 27, 2024

In the writ petition, Zubair has requested the court to quash the FIR and grant protection from punitive action. In his petition, Zubair said that the post made by him on 'X' did not advocate violence against Narsinghanand, but it merely alerted the police officers about the actions of Narsinghanand. He has also challenged the provision of defamation under BNS on the ground that seeking action against Narsinghanand for sharing an already public video does not fall under defamation.

The petition also said that the derogatory remarks against the Prophet were made at a time when Yeti Narsinghanand was out on bail in another case of hate speech in which the bail condition was that he would not make any statement that would spoil communal harmony.