New Delhi (08/07/2022): The Supreme Court on Friday granted interim bail for five days to fact-checking website Alt News co-founder Mohammad Zubair in an FIR registered against him by Uttar Pradesh police in Sitapur for a tweet in which he allegedly called three Hindu seers as ‘hate mongers’.
A vacation bench of Justices Indira Banerjee and JK Maheshwari said its interim bail order is only with respect to FIR lodged in Sitapur against Zubair and it has nothing to do with the case registered in Delhi.
“We are making it very clear, that this interim bail is in relation to FIR dated June 1, 2022, of Sitapur and not any other FIR against the petitioner,” the bench said.
Zubair, however, will remain in judicial custody in a separate FIR registered by the Delhi Police, as the apex court made it clear that its order is only related to the Sitapur case.
Imposing conditions on bail, the apex court said that he shall not tamper with electronic evidence in Bangalore or anywhere else.
He shall not tweet regarding the case, said the bench. It also made it clear that this order will also not impede the investigation, seizure of evidence in the Sitapur case.
