SC Grants Bail To Mohammed Zubair In All 6 Cases, Orders Immediate Release

Mumbai: The Supreme Court has granted interim bail to fact-checking the website Alt News Co-founder Mohammed Zubair in all the six FIRs registered against him in Uttar Pradesh and ordered immediate release.

The court has called for all the FIRs to be clubbed together and handled by one investigating authority – the Delhi Police. In such a situation, the SIT formed by the Uttar Pradesh Police will now be considered inactive and redundant.

https://twitter.com/ANI/status/1549685088564129792?s=20&t=pjMpPD0AG0qxO6mh8NlpgQ

“We are of the view that the alternative prayer of the petitioner should be allowed. All the FIRs registered against the petitioners, including the six FIRs mentioned above, should be transferred for investigation by the Delhi Police,” the court said.

The direction to transfer all UP FIRs to Delhi Police Special Cell will also apply to future FIRs that may be registered on the basis of tweets.

“Delhi police has submitted a comprehensive status report showing the course of the investigation, tweets which form part of the probe and search and seizure which is carried out on premises of petitioner. It is evident that the probe by the special Delhi Police cell is a comprehensive investigation which looks at the gamut of tweets by the petitioner…Essentially the gravamen of allegations are tweets by him. he has been subjected to a fairly sustained probe by Delhi police we don’t find a reason for his deprivation of liberty to persist further,” Justice DY Chandrachud said.

Zubair was granted bail subject to his filing a personal bond for Rs 20,000.

Six FIRs have been registered against Zubair in UP – two in Hathras and one each in Sitapur, Lakhimpur Kheri, Muzaffarnagar and Ghaziabad. Of these, the fact checker is in judicial custody in the Hathras case, while he was earlier granted interim bail by the apex court in the Sitapur case.

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