Supreme Court gives 5-day interim bail to Mohammed Zubair in Sitapur hate speech case

New Delhi, July 8

The Supreme Court on Friday granted five-day interim bail to Alt News co-founder Mohammed Zubair in a hate speech case registered against him in Sitapur, Uttar Pradesh.

However, he will continue to be in jail as he is in judicial custody in another case registered against him in Delhi as the top court made it clear that the interim bail order was not applicable to any other case, except the one registered at PS Khairabad, Sitapur.

Issuing notice to the State of Uttar Pradesh, a Vacation Bench led by Justice Indira Banerjee directed Zubair’s petition to be posted for hearing before a regular appropriate Bench on July 12.

The Bench said the interim bail was “for a period of five days from today or until further orders of the Rregular Bench on terms and conditions to be imposed by the Judicial Magistrate-I, Sitapur…”

The order came after senior advocate Colin Gonsalves, representing Zubair, submitted that it was a case of personal liberty of someone who simply pointed out how some religious leaders were saying Muslim women should be raped.

During the hearing, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, representing the Uttar Pradesh Government, pointed out that he was in judicial custody in another case registered against him in Delhi. He also said Zubair deleted many of his tweets.

A Sitapur court had on Thursday rejected his bail plea and sent him in police custody. He was being taken to Bengaluru when the top court was hearing the case. Now, he will have to surrender before a Delhi court which had sent him to judicial custody in another case.

The Bench—which restrained Zubair from putting out any tweets—also asked him not to tamper with evidence – electronic or otherwise.

The top court made it clear that the interim bail order shall not affect the investigation of the case and seizure of laptops and other equipment by the Sitapur Police.

It directed that the orders of Sitapur Judicial Magistrate First Class dated July 7, 2022, be translated and filed.

Zubair had on Thursday moved the Supreme Court seeking bail in a case registered against him by Uttar Pradesh Police at Sitapur for allegedly hurting religious sentiments of Hindus by calling Hindu religious figures Mahant Bajarang Muni, Swami Yati Narsinghanad and Swami Anand Swarup “hatemongers”.

He has challenged the Allahabad High Court’s order refusing to quash an FIR registered at Sitapur in this regard.

Zubair was arrested by Delhi Police on June 27 for allegedly hurting religious sentiments through his tweets. He has also been accused of violating FCRA provisions and destruction of evidence.

At the very outset, Mehta took serious exception to Zubair concealing the rejection of his bail by Sitapur and Delhi courts.